A bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw issued notice to the Director General, Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and sought its reply by July 18.
The bench was hearing a PIL filed by one Umesh Sethi seeking directions to the Centre for prevention of such misuse of public money as it causes harm to the democratic fabric of the country.
"Public money is being spent on eulogizing leaders with definite linkage to political party in power, on their birth and death anniversaries and which has adverse impact in many ways.
"Such spending is also violating certain aspects of prevention of corruption act and needs to be investigated," the petitioner submitted.
The petitioner claimed that he has obtained information through RTI application that Rs 30 crore has been spent by various ministries between 2009-2011 on advertisements in print and electronic media.
He sought an order directing the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India to audit their accounts. (More)
