A new public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in Calcutta High Court seeking ban on publishing any picture of Mamata Banerjee, Bengal chief minister or any other minister in paid government advertisements as Supreme Court of India had previously directed that except for the President and Prime Minister, no advertisements by the government may publish any picture of chief minister and other ministers. Unfortunately, despite such categorical direction from the Apex Court, large number of advertisements are published in newspapers and TV on a daily basis with prominent picture of the CM and other ministers that implicitly, if not explicitly, promote the ruling political party at taxpayers’ expense. These brazen advertisements published daily by the ruling government clearly violates Supreme Court’s direction and undermines sanctity of the highest court of the land. While PBT remains as a completely neutral non-political entity and other state ministers may also be involved in similar gross abuse of public fund in promoting political agenda of other political parties, this new PIL was filed in Calcutta High Court against the wrongful action by the Trinomul-Congress (TMC) led government in West Bengal. This PIL is likely to come up for hearing on Friday (March 29).
