Sonia

New Delhi, July 28: The Supreme Court today issued a notice to the Centre and state governments that in essence questions why public money is spent to glorify political leaders through advertisements.

“Many capital projects are stalled due to lack of revenue and wasteful expenditure? Some guidelines have to be there,” a three-judge bench headed by chief justice Y.K. Sabharwal said asking the Centre and states to file their affidavits in six weeks.

The notice was issued in connection with a public interest litigation that alleged waste of public money in putting out print ads celebrating birthdays of political leaders, for example.

“The affidavits should disclose guidelines, if any, for incurring expenditure of the nature complained of in the petition, particularly advertisements in the nature of congratulatory messages on birthdays of political leaders,” the bench said.

One of the factors for a deficit budget was wasteful expenditure, the court noted, adding that “prima facie the matter required reflection on part of the government”.

When additional solicitorgeneral Gopal Subramaniam argued that the ads were aimed at inviting civil society to participate in nation-building, the court said a few might not be objectionable but there were others on which lakhs of rupees were being wasted.

Two lawyers ? Manzoor Ali Khan and Rohit Pandey ?had moved the court after noticing a series of ads in print by various ministries and state governments in 2004 on the 60th birth anniversary of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. They alleged that around Rs 10 crore might have been spent on the ads.

Advocate D.K. Garg, appearing for petitioners, pointed out a Rajasthan government ad congratulating Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his birthday.

The petitioners have alleged that the government and its arms were wasting tax-payers’ money that was supposed to be used for providing basic necessities, like education, medical facilities, food, water and shelter, to citizens.

“We are talking of joining the club of developed nations. Let us invite what is good in developed nations? You do not see such advertisements there,” the court said.

Saying that it was an important issue, the court asked the additional solicitor general to assist it more as an officer of the court than a representative of the government.

Subramaniam told the court that he would advise the government to initiate a dialogue with the states.

An information and broadcasting ministry official said the ministry had released about Rs 200 crore to the print media for ads by various wings of the government last year. But it’s not known how much of this was spent in celebration of birthdays.

The petitioners cited ads placed by the Congress governments in Delhi and Punjab on Sonia Gandhi’s birthday.