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Informist, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Wednesday set aside an order of the Madras High Court restraining the government of Tamil Nadu from naming any of its welfare schemes after any current or former chief minister or ideologue and depicting photographs of political leaders, party symbols, and flags therein. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai said launching schemes in the names of political leaders happens throughout the country.

 

The case has its genesis from a public interest litigation filed in the Madras High Court by Member of Parliament C.V. Shanmugam of the opposition All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Shanmugam had challenged a Jun. 19 order of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government in the state, implementing an outreach programme called "Ungaludan Stalin", using the name of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin. The scheme intended to take the government's benefits and services to the doorstep of beneficiaries by organising nearly 10,000 camps at a proposed budget of INR 549.50 million.

 

The top court said it has a list of 45 schemes that have been floated in the names of various political leaders in Tamil Nadu, but it did not wish to refer to those schemes to avoid embarrassing the parties concerned. "When such schemes have been floated with the leaders of all political parties, we do not appreciate the anxiety of the petitioner (Shanmugam) to choose only one party and one leader. If the petitioner was so concerned about the misuse of the fund, he should have challenged all such schemes," the court said.

 

The Supreme Court noted that Shanmugam had also filed a representation before the Election Commission of India against the scheme floated by the Tamil Nadu government. However, after three days of its representation to the poll panel, Shanmugam had moved the Madras High Court challenging the state government's scheme. Shanmugam had said the state government had violated the Supreme Court's guidelines by branding public welfare schemes with the name and image of the chief minister, along with photos of former party leaders and ideological icons.

 

The Supreme Court observed that after approaching the high court in such a hurried manner, the petitioner had the audacity to give the Election Commission no time to decide upon his representation and to make sweeping allegations against its alleged failure to take action and to castigate the poll body. "Time and again, we have observed that political battles be settled before the electoral roll and courts should not be used for this," said the bench also comprising Justice K.V. Chandran and Justice N.V. Anjaria. "The writ petition was misconceived in law. We are allowing the special leave petition. We quash the impugned order (of the Madras High Court). The writ petition pending before the high court is dismissed with costs of 10 lakh rupees (INR 1.00 million)."

 

In an order passed on Jul. 31, the high court had said, "We are inclined to pass an interim order to the effect that while launching and operating government welfare schemes through various advertisements, the name of any living personality, photograph of any former Chief Minister/ideological leaders or party insignia/emblem/flag of respondent No. 4 (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) shall not be included." The state government then moved the Supreme Court, challenging the high court's order.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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