Tamil Nadu Barred From Using Names Of Living Leaders For State Schemes

The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to refrain from naming welfare schemes after living political personalities or using photographs of former Chief Ministers or ideological leaders in government publicity material. The court's ruling came in response to a public interest litigation filed by AIADMK MP CV Shanmugam.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Sunder Mohan, cited Supreme Court directives and content guidelines for government advertisements. The judges ruled that while the use of the incumbent Chief Minister's photograph -- MK Stalin -- is permitted as per the top court's 2016 clarification, including images of late leaders or party insignia such as flags or emblems is prima facie impermissible.

The court also barred the use of any living political leader's name in the nomenclature of government schemes. 

Recently, the Tamil Nadu government had launched an outreach programme "UNGALUDAN STALIN" or 'Stalin With You', incorporating the Chief Minister's name. The state government had also scheduled to launch a similarly named health programme tomorrow. 

Petitioner CV Shanmugam, represented by Senior Counsel Vijay Narayan, argued that the state was misusing public funds to promote political personalities by embedding their identities into welfare schemes. He contended this violated the Supreme Court's rulings in the Common Cause cases and the Government Advertisement (Content Regulation) Guidelines, 2014.

While the state government denied the claims-stating that the cited pamphlets were unauthentic and not officially, the court held that any such material containing politically symbolic visuals would violate legal norms.

Importantly, the High Court clarified it was not stopping the government from implementing welfare schemes, only the manner in which they are publicised. The matter is scheduled for further hearing on August 13.