| In its order, the court observed that, ''no cable
operator or television channel will telecast any advertisement, which
does not conform to the law of the land and offends morality, decency
and religious susceptibility of the viewers and are shocking, disgusting
or revolting''.
Including indiantelevision.com, this part caused some initial
confusion in the media that SC had put a ban on political advertising
altogether.
The interim observation from the apex court came after a hearing
on a Special Leave Petition filed by the information and broadcasting
ministry earlier this week seeking a stay on an Andhra Pradesh high
court order that lifted the ban on political advertising on the
electronic medium, which had
been put in place through clauses in the Cable TV Network (Regulation)
Act, 1995.
On 23 March, the Andhra HC, based on a petition filed by Gemini
Television Network, ETV and Maa TV which challenged rule 7 (3) of
the Act invoked by the information and broadcasting ministry and
Election Commission to ban telecast of political advertisements,
had quashed the ban.
The HC had also observed that the ban order amounted to discrimination
between the two media (print and electronic) and was violating the
right to freedom of trade and business.
Interestingly, the apex court said that its present directives
would "substitute" the Andhra Pradesh high court ruling.
Legal experts interpreted this as SC's indication that it has not
taken a final call on the fate of political advertising on electronic
medium or Clause 7(3) of the Cable Act.
The I&B ministry's SLP was a result of deliberations that took
place in the government and at the highest level in the Bharatiya
Janata Party on Monday after a surrogate ad cast aspersions on prime
minister A B Vajpayee's political antecedents and threatened to
tarnish his squeaky clean image.
A three-judge Bench, comprising Chief Justice V N Khare and Justices
S B Sinha and S H Kapadia, accepted the submissions of Attorney
General Soli J Sorabjee in putting in stopping "political mudslinging"
through surrogate advertisements.
In an interesting observation, the Court sought the response of
the Election Commission by Monday, when the next hearing of the
case is slated, whether the money spent on ads by candidates for
the election could be made part of their election expenses, which
has been limited to Rs 25 lakhs
per Lok Sabha constituency and Rs 10 lakhs for Assembly seats.
This was in response to a government submission that allowing political
advertising on TV channels would result in misuse of financial muscle,
thus disrupting the smooth and fair execution of the democratic
process of elections.
A notice has been issued by the Supreme Court to Gemini TV too;
on whose writ petition the AP high court had stayed Rule 7(3) of
the Cable TV Network (Regulation) Act on the ground that it was
against the fundamental right of a person to carry on any business.
INDUSTRY, POLITICAL PARTIES WELCOME DECISON
A spokesperson for Star India, which is at present in negotiations
with advertising agencies representing political parties for slotting
of political advertisements on various Star channels, welcomed the
SC observation, saying, "As a responsible broadcaster, Star
would abide by any directive from the court and would work along
with the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) in this regard."
Hailing today's SC directive as one that would "strengthen
the democratic and electoral process of the country", Zee Telefilms
vice-chairman Jawahar Goel opined, "Attempts to get political
advertising banned on television is based on the misconception that
taking air time on channels is costlier
than taking space in print medium products."
According to him, TV channels behaved responsibly by taking off
surrogate ads when a controversy was whipped up at the behest of
IBF. Zee News was one of the channels, apart from Aaj Tak, that
had started carrying surrogate political ads issued by little known
Trusts and non-governmental
organizations.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which had bowled the first ball in
this Bodyline series of political advertising, welcomed the efforts
of SC to formulate guidelines on the content.
According to a BJP spokesperson, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the party
has always been in favour of media campaigns based on issues affecting
the people. "The people of the country found the Congress ads
to be unacceptable and there should be a code of conduct on what
should be the content of such ads and what should not be,"
a PTI reported Naqvi as saying.
The Congress, however, was quick to point out that it was the BJP
that started such mud slinging. A senior party leader and a member
of the Congress' media cell said, "We welcome the court's suggestions.
But when it started hurting them (BJP), then only they went running
to take legal shelter."
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