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Tuesday, Jul 06, 2004

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National

Court order on surrogate ads in force for Assembly polls too

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, JULY 5. The Supreme Court today said its April 13 order that the Election Commission's prior clearance was necessary for telecast of all political advertisements in television channels and cable networks would continue to operate until further orders.

As a result, it will be applicable for the Assembly elections to be held in Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh in October and three other States next year.

On April 13 the court, while staying the interim orders of the Andhra Pradesh High Court suspending the operation of Rule 7 (3) of the Cable Television Network Rules, had put in place comprehensive guidelines to be followed by political parties, candidates and others in the issue of advertisements for telecast from April 16 to May 10. The Commission was vested with powers to screen advertisements and issue certificate for telecast.

When the matter was taken up today, counsel for the Election Commission, S. Murlidhar, submitted before a three-Judge Bench comprising the Chief Justice, R.C. Lahoti, Justice G.P. Mathur and Justice Ashok Mathur, that the earlier order was applicable only for the general elections till May 10. He said Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh would have Assembly elections in October and Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana in February next year. He wanted the interim order to continue for these polls also.

On behalf of Gemini TV, it was submitted that the Supreme Court had passed the order on an appeal made by the Centre against the interim orders of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which stayed Rule 7 (3) on four petitions filed by Gemini TV and three others. It was submitted that the petition be transferred to the Supreme Court for final disposal.

The Bench ordered transfer of the petition to the Supreme Court and permitted the Centre to file applications for transfer of the other three petitions from the High Court to the apex court. Further, the interim order of April 13 would continue to operate until further orders, the Bench said.

Considering the fact that several surrogate advertisements were being telecast, the Supreme Court had made it clear in April that no advertisement could be inserted by any political party, candidate or person without prior clearance from the Commission or the Chief Electoral Officers in the States and Union Territories. If it were found that advertisements were being telecast in violation of the guidelines, the Commission would be empowered to seize the equipment of the offending television channel or cable network.

The court had said that the political parties and contesting candidates intending to insert the advertisement in the electronic media shall submit the content of the advertisement along with its transcript to the Election Commission or its nominated official three days before the proposed date of telecast for obtaining clearance. For others, they have to submit the advertisements seven days prior to the proposed telecast.

It was made mandatory for the advertisers to state on affidavit whether the insertion was funded by political parties and whether it was meant to benefit the electoral chances of a political party or a candidate.

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