Context

As per directions of the Supreme Court, States are mandated to set up their three member committees on Content Regulation of Government Advertisements.

About

• As per the directions of Supreme Court on 13th May, 2015, Government of India on 6th April, 2016 had set up a three member body consisting of “persons with unimpeachable neutrality and impartiality and who have excelled in their respective fields”, to look into content regulation of government funded advertisements of all media platforms.
• Under the Supreme Court’s guidelines, the content of Government Advertisement should be relevant to the government’s constitutional and legal obligations as well as the citizen’s right and entitlements.
  • Advertisement materials should be presented in an objective, fair and accessible manner and designed to meet the objectives of the campaign
  • Advertisement materials should be objective and not directed at promoting political interests of ruling party
  • Advertisement Campaigns be justified and undertaken in an efficient and cost-effective manner
  • Government advertising must comply with legal requirement and financial regulations and procedures
• The Committee is empowered to address complaints from the general public on violation of  Supreme Court’s guidelines and make suitable recommendations.

Which States have constituted state-level committees?

• State-level committees have already been constituted by Karnataka, Goa, Mizoram and Nagaland. 
• Chhattisgarh government has given its consent to the Central Committee to monitor the content of their government advertisements.

Recent CCRGA meet

• The Committee on Content Regulation in Government Advertising, CCRGA in its 19th meeting held recently took a serious note of delay in constituting state level Committees by other states.
• The CCRGA was of the view that some state governments’ delay in setting up the state-level committees may be construed as contempt of Supreme Court’s order.
• The CCRGA’s attention was also drawn to the fact that some respondents were yet to furnish their replies to the notices issued to them in response to the complaints received by the Committee.
• The CCRGA felt that non-compliance of its decisions is a serious matter. 
• It was of the considered opinion that in the event of any non-compliance of CCRGA’s Orders, the Committee may be constrained to put embargo on issue of further advertisements by nodal agencies of concerned governments, which come under purview of this Committee.
• The Committee may, if necessary, also decide to summon the concerned official of the Government agencies dealing with release of advertisements in the event of undue delay in responding to Committee’s notices.