Litigant Moves Madras HC Seeking Removal Of Former CM Karunanidhi's Photos From Govt Websites, Ads

A litigant, S Venkatesh has recently moved the Madras High Court seeking to declare display of photos of former CM Karunanidhi on government websites, advertisements, posters and banners as illegal.

When the matter came up for hearing today, the bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala adjourned the proceedings while directing the petitioner to submit translated copies of the documents annexed.

Venkatesh, pursuing LLB at the Government Law College Madurai, has approached the court citing multiple instances of the Tamil Nadu government and departments publishing posters and banners with pictures of the current Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, along with the image of Former CM M Karunanidhi.

He has contended that displaying of the photo of a former CM in the Government websites and web portals of Government Department institutions, which are owned by Government, is against the spirit of constitutional democracy.

"Ours is a Constitutional Democratic country and hero-worship is antithesis to democracy," the plea says.

The plea also draws attention of the court to various directions issued by the Supreme Court, emphasizing against glorification of political personalities.

"The legitimate and permissible object of an advertisement, AS earlier discussed, can always be achieved without publication of the photograph of any particular functionary either in the State of a political party," the Top Court had said in Common Cause v. Union of India (2015).