A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court to restrain the State government from publishing photos of former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi or any other person, except those whose photos had been permitted by the Supreme Court, in government advertisements as well as websites.
First Division Bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N. Mala on Thursday adjourned the hearing of the case to September 23 to enable the petitioner S. Venkatesh, 48, pursuing a law course at the Government Law College in Madurai, to file the English translation of certain documents that he had relied upon.
In his affidavit, the litigant claimed that the photos of Karunanidhi had been published on the websites of Tamil Nadu Registration department, Tamil Nadu Small Industries Development Corporation (TANSIDCO), Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation, Salem city municipal corporation and so on.
Relying upon a Supreme Court order that only the photographs of select personalities such as the President, Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India, and Chief Ministers should be published in government advertisements, the litigant sought a direction to remove the photos of M. Karunanidhi from the government web portals too.
