Kochi, March 12 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, which were allegedly "glorifying" themselves and portraying the previous UDF regime in a negative 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 regarding the maintainability of the two public interest litigations, one of which was filed by the president of the Ernakulam District Congress Committee (DCC), Muhammed Shiyas, according to a senior government lawyer.
The second petition was filed by Sharon D Panakkal, a former member of the Ernakulam District Panchayat.
The two petitions allege that the advertisements were issued with the upcoming Assembly elections in Kerala in mind.
Shiyas, in his plea filed through advocate Anoop V Nair, has claimed that the issuance of these advertisements was "unconstitutional and an abuse of power by the state government".
He also claimed that it was "a misuse of state resources and public funds for partisan political gain".
"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 disrupting the level playing field in the democratic process," Shiyas argued in his plea.
He further claimed that the advertisements were "politically motivated publications" that attempted to portray the state of Kerala under the previous UDF government as being in decline, while simultaneously glorifying the present regime and highlighting its achievements.
Panakkal, in his petition, has made similar allegations.
