PIL on government advertisements shifted to regular bench: Andhra Pradesh High Court

Amaravati: The special bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court comprising Justice Rakesh Kumar and Justice Uma Devi transferred the public interest litigation (PIL) filed against the state government advertisements, opposing colour and photographs to the regular bench upon hearing the arguments on Monday.

Advocate General (AG) Sriram Subrahmaniam explained to the special bench that it was benami political interest litigation, as the petitioner moved around with the TDP coterie.

The AG also informed that the previous government used the pictures of NTR, Lokesh, and N Chandrababu Naidu in all the advertisements between 2014-19, where the petitioner was comfortable with those advertisements and his conscience suddenly started pricking once the TDP went out of power.

During the session, the special bench questioned the petitioner as to why had not approached the Supreme Court over the matter, and also stated that there was nothing wrong with publishing the pictures of YS Rajashekar Reddy as he was the former chief minister of the state.

The AG mentioned that there was Supreme Court judgement allowing the pictures of Chief Minister and the ministers and other personalities in the advertisements.