30/07/2015

Patna High Court bans photos of Bihar CM, ministers from ‘Badh Chala’ campaign

 


Patna,(BiharTimes): A two-member bench of Chief Justice L Narasimha Reddy and Anjana Mishra of the Patna High Court on Tuesday ordered an interim ban on use of photos of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and his ministers from the state government’s “Badh Chala Bihar” campaign.
Responding to the PIL filed by Shiv Prakash Rai, the convenor of the ‘Nagarik Adhikar Manch’ the court termed it as a wasteful expenditure, especially when the state is facing resources crunch.
Rai had accused the state government of misusing public money in the name of campaign for publicityof the ruling Janata Dal (United).
According to state’s Additional Advocate-General Lalit Kishore the court has ruled that photos of chief minister, ministers or any other leader as well as audio-visual material should not be used during the Badh Chala Bihar campaign. But data collection under the campaign would continue as usual. 
The court would hear the case again after four weeks.
The bench had on Monday sought all documents related to budget, expenditure and total cost of the campaign from the state government on Tuesday itself though it asked for two weeks time.
Rai said his organisation would now press for recovery of money spent on the publicity of Bihar CM and his ministers.
His counsel Dinu Kumar said Rai is going to counter the state government claim that it is spending only Rs 14 crore on the campaign. 
He pleaded before the court that use of the photos and audio-visual material of Bihar chief minister and his ministers were against the Supreme Court ruling of May 13 last that only pictures of President, Prime Minister and Chief Justice of India could be used in government advertisement.
Badh Chala Bihar was launched after this ruling, that is on June 9.

 


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