Political ad telecast ban to continue

The Supreme Court order restricting surrogate political advertisements on television channels will continue during the coming Assembly elections too, as it decided today to extend the direction till further orders. The court will hear the issue in detail in four petitions before it.

The issue came up before the Supreme Court originally on April 13 when it passed the order that no political advertisements should be telecast without prior clearance of the Election Commission. The poll panel was asked to appoint officers who would screen the programmes before granting permission to telecast them.

The poll panel was thus made the sole authority to judge "cleanness" of such advertisements. This order will continue for the Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh slated for October this year.

The apex court Bench headed by Chief Justice RC Lahoti passed the order after hearing the appeal of the information and broadcasting ministry against the Andhra Pradesh High Court direction staying the operation of Section 7(3) of the Cable TV Network Regulations. The court also transferred to itself a writ petition before the high court moved by Gemini TV challenging the regulation.

The Supreme Court will hear these petitions and others moved by three more TV channels.

The channels argued that the rule restricted the rights of the electronic media while leaving the print media free from the regulations. This was not only violation of their freedom but also discrimination, both unconstitutional, the TV channels stated.

Though the Supreme Court is not likely to decide the issue before the Maharashtra elections, its opinion might be available for the Bihar and Jharkhand Assembly elections scheduled for February 2005.