The Uttar Pradesh government would move the Supreme Court soon for a stay on the court’s recent order that bars government advertisements from carrying pictures of any personality other than the President, the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India. After seeking the stay, the state government would also challenge the order.
The Uttar Pradesh government would move the Supreme Court soon for a stay on the court’s recent order that bars government advertisements from carrying pictures of any personality other than the President, the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India. After seeking the stay, the state government would also challenge the order.
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“We will petition the vacation bench of the SC for an immediate stay order. We will take the plea that the judgment was made ex parte without hearing the state government,” said a senior officer of the state government.
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For its part, the state government said that any recent advertisement or advertorial with photographs of the chief minister or any other minister were either non-government advertisements or ‘activity pictures’.
“The SC order restrains glorification pictures, and our ads were not featuring any such pictures. They are only activity pictures and there is no ban on such pictures,” said the officer.
The UP government was the first to express its reservations over the SC judgment and say it was in “contravention of the federal structure”.Gaurav Bhatia, president of the legal cell of Samajwadi Party and a Supreme Court lawyer, had said: “We respect the judgment of the SC. It would have far reaching consequences.”
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He, however, clarified that initially the committee that made recommendations to the SC had put the governor and the chief minister in the states on a par with the president and the prime minister at the centre. But in the final judgment, the chief minister and the governor were omitted.
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He, however, clarified that initially the committee that made recommendations to the SC had put the governor and the chief minister in the states on a par with the president and the prime minister at the centre. But in the final judgment, the chief minister and the governor were omitted.
Pankaj Jaiswal is Bureau Chief, Uttar Pradesh. He covers-analyses politics, and assists Hindustan Times reporters across the state. He has 30 years of experience in print media reporting. Based in Lucknow, he started his journalism career at a national English daily in Kanpur after graduating from Christ Church College. He joined Hindustan Times, Lucknow edition, as part of the launch team in 1997. He’s covered everything from rural distress to science, environment, wildlife, and crime. He has travelled extensively in Uttar Pradesh for rural, development, political, and election reporting. His continued interest in rural issues, rural distress, and development journalism has fetched him a handful of prestigious awards and fellowships. Pankaj is a photojournalist too. He clinched the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting—First Prize in 2009 and Third Prize in 2006—for exposing Bundelkhand’s devastating drought and distress: crop failures, farm suicides, migration, debt, and the injustice of meagre compensation cheques between Rs 10 and Rs 20 to farmers by the government from crop loss. He also has been awarded with Hindustan Times internal 'Journalist of the Month' citation over half a dozen times. His relentless reporting in Hindustan Times pulled the Bundelkhand crisis out of obscurity and forced it into the national spotlight, prompting media and government action on one of India’s most neglected regions. Over a decade, he filed hundreds of hard-hitting stories, travelling repeatedly from Lucknow deep into Bundelkhand. He also received the Special Mention KC Kulish International Award 2009. Pankaj also did long-haul political reporting on the most intense political family feud—’The Yadav Family Feud’—between 2016 and 2022.
