TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Realising that it has violated the Supreme Court guidelines banning government advertisements featuring pictures of politicians, the Goa government has approached the Law Department seeking to examine the order.
The State government had published a black-and-white advertisement announcing the ‘Sankalp Din’ in a local daily on Monday that carried photos of Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, Tribal Welfare Minister Ramesh Tawadkar and Savordem MLA Ganesh Gaonkar. The event organized by the Directorate of Tribal Welfare was held at Ravindra Bhavan in Margao.
The SC ruling keeps away pictures of politicians from advertisements and specifically mentions that government advertisements can feature pictures of only the Prime Minister, the President, and the Chief Justice of India. All these three personalities will have to approve whether their photos will be there.
Sources at the Secretariat disclosed that the government has forwarded the SC verdict to the Law department for a thorough scrutiny and guidance about the implications. In the meantime, government departments have been issued circulars asking them not to publish photographs of any minister or MLA or political leaders till a report is submitted by the law experts.
