Tamil Nadu election: DMK moves Madras high court to stop AIADMK govt from spending public funds on ads – Times of India

CHENNAI: Alleging that the AIADMK government is spending crores of public funds to lure voters in Tamil Nadu through advertisements in almost all television channels and newspapers, the DMK has moved the Madras high court seeking to restrain it from utilising public funds for such purposes.
However, when the plea came up for hearing on Monday, the state informed the court that it stopped issuing such advertisements from February 18.
“The advertisements were issued only to showcase the performance of the state government for the past four years. All such activities will be stopped once the Election Commission of India (ECI) notifies election for the state,” advocate general Vijay Narayan said.
“Actually, the matter has become infructuous since the government has stopped issuing such advertisements on Thursday,” he added.
Earlier, representing the DMK, senior advocate P Wilson said free and fair elections and purity in elections are basic features of the constitution. The chief minister of the state is indulging in advertising in all TV channels, newspapers and all websites commercial internet sites pampering and projecting him for the past two months.
On October 7, 2016, the ECI issued directions to all political parties to resist from indulging in such acts and clarified that it would attract freezing of election symbols. The DMK submitted a petition citing violation of the direction in January and February 2021, but the ECI had not taken any action,
Wilson said.
Senior advocate G Rajagopal appearing for the ECI submitted that the commission had called for remarks from the AIADMK and was awaiting reply. He sought time for filing a status report.
Recording the submissions, the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy adjourned the hearing to March 2 for the state to file a counter.