Portraits of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa will continue to be displayed in government offices and departments in the state as the Madras High Court on Tuesday refused to order their removal.
Portraits of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa will continue to be displayed in government offices and departments in the state as the Madras High Court on Tuesday refused to order their removal.
"We are not inclined to direct the authorities to display portrait of the current Chief Minister alone and remove the one of erstwhile Chief Minister," said a division bench comprising Justice V Dhanapalan and Justice VM Velumani, dismissing a PIL.
The petitioner S Karunanidhi, an advocate, said that after her conviction in a corruption case leading to her exit from the office of Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa's portraits continued to adorn the walls of government offices whereas incumbent Chief Minister O Paneerselvam's pictures were not to be seen anywhere.
Pointing out that the state had rules to hang portrait of any leader from the list of 12 personalities, the petitioner said the ususal practice is to display the incumbent Chief Minister's portrait and remove former Chief Minister's portraits from government offices.
Rejecting the prayer, the bench said since the government has taken a policy matter as to portraits of which leaders and personalities to be displayed in government offices. "...we see no reason to countenance the prayer of the petitioner".
"It is only for the government to take a decision as to the display of portraits of leaders and personalities, not for this court to direct the authorities to display portraits of only particular persons and remove others". Counsel for the petitioner, Peter Ramesh Kumar, contended that by not removing a former Chief Minister's photo from government offices, its policy had been violated.
Countering, Advocate General AL Somayaji said there could not be any direction to government on policy matters. A decision on displaying portraits of eminent personalities was taken on June 4, 2006, he said, adding that the PIL was not at all maintainable.
The bench, dismissing the PIL, however, asked the government to formulate a definite policy on displaying portraits of leaders and personalities so as to be followed uniformly to avoid any difficulties.
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