The Hindu Business Line : Political ads: EC given 3-days' time to fine-tune proposal

THE Election Commission has been given three-days' time to fine-tune its proposal of permitting registered political parties and contesting candidates to advertise in the electronic media.

A Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice Mr V.N. Khare, Justice Mr S.B. Sinha and Justice Mr S.H. Kapadia have posted the next hearing for Monday while also questioning "how any citizen could be deprived of his right to put an advertisement in the electronic media?"

The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry had appealed in the Apex Court against and the Andhra Pradesh High Court order permitting political parties to advertise in television channels.

The Bench on Thursday took note of Attorney General Soli J. Sorabjee's suggestion that the guidelines required "fine-tuning".

Appearing for the EC, senior advocate Mr K.K. Venugopal said it was not possible to put in place a ``foolproof'' mechanism to monitor political advertisements within such a short span of time and advocated continuance of the ban on all political advertisements under Section 7(3) of the Cable TV Network Rules, 1994.

However, the Commission said that it would allow the 700-odd registered political parties and all contesting candidates to advertise in TV medium. The concerned person or party should approach it with the content of the advertisement seven days before its telecast for vetting.

More Stories on : Politics | Advertising

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
FAPCCI meet on elections tomorrow

NDA vows to make India economic superpower

Political ads: EC given 3-days' time to fine-tune proposal

`Protect Govt data on the Web'