Kerala HC seeks govt's stand on pleas against LDF govt advertisements
Kochi : The Kerala High Court on Thursday sought the state government's stand on the maintainability of two pleas against the advertisements issued by the LDF government, allegedly "glorifying" itself and showing the earlier UDF regime in a bad light.
A bench of Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Syam Kumar V M asked the state government to file an affidavit within 10 days on the maintainability of the two public interest litigations, one of them by Ernakulam District Congress Committee (DCC) president Muhammed Shiyas, a senior government lawyer said.
The second petition has been filed by Sharon D Panakkal, a former member of the Ernakulam District Panchayat.
The two petitions have alleged that the advertisements were issued with an eye on the upcoming Assembly polls in Kerala.
Shiyas, in his plea filed through advocate Anoop V Nair, has claimed that issuance of these advertisements was "unconstitutional and colourable exercise of power by the state government".
He also claimed that it was "a misuse of the state machinery and public funds for partisan political advantage".
"Public funds are a collective resource held in trust for the people, and their diversion for partisan political purposes undermines the constitutional guarantee of equality under Article 14 by disturbing the level playing field in the democratic process," Shiyas contended in his plea.
He further claimed that the advertisements were "politically loaded publications" which attempted to portray the state of Kerala under the previous UDF government as being in a state of decline, while simultaneously glorifying the present regime and projecting its curated achievements. Panakkal, in his petition, has made similar allegations.
