I&B Ministry
Court ruling on political ads may be contested
NEW DELHI: The Indian government is contemplating contensting the Andhra Pradesh high court order quashing a ban on political advertisements on the electronic medium. Reason: to douse the fire that has engulfed not only Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, but also Prime Minister Atal B. Vajpayee.
According to political sources in the Capital, the govermnent is mulling, as one of the options, to go in for a Special Leave Petition (SLP) petitoning the Supreme Court to look into the issue of politcal advertisments, surrogate or otherwise, on television channels.
A The sources said that a high-level meeting in this regard was held at the Prime Ministers residence yesterday where this matter was debated.
It is also learnt that Vajpayee, while expressing his unhappiness at being target of a surrogate advertisment questioning his antecendents during the pre-Independence days, would want the issue to be buried. An ideal scenario would be to have the Supreme Court stay the order of the Andhra high court, which removes the ban on political ads to be carried o TV channels under the Cable TV Network (Regulation) Act.
Amongst the several options discussed, the most plausible looked like the one where the government or an organisation contested the Andhra HC order.
Those who attended the meeting with the PM included his advisor Brajesh Misra, information and broadcasting minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Solicitor-General Soli Sorabjee and Bharatiya Janata Party president Venkaiah Naidu.
On 23 March, the Andhra HC, based on a petition filed by Gemini Television Network, ETV and Maa TV which challenged rule 7 (3) of the Act invoked by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and Election Commission to ban telecast of political advertisements, quashed the ban.
The court also observed that the ban order amounted to discrimination between the two media (print and electronic) and was also violative of the right to freedom of trade and business.
Since the order was passed, the issue has snowballed into a controversy with the Election Commissiona nd the government lobbing the ball into each others court.
The issue of surrogate political advertisements is echoing not in the Election Commission or on TV channels, but somewhere else. The reverberations of personal attacks can be heard in the Prime Ministers residence. Apparently, according to political sources, PM Atal B Vajpayee is very upset that an ad allegedly showing him in bad light did a round of TV channels before broadcasters decided to take all such ads off air.
Stung by a surrogate ad put out by a Bharatiya Janata Party front organization questioning party chief Sonia Gandhis foreign origin, a seemingly front organization of the Congress hit back by issuing an ad that dwelt on Vajpayees antecedents and that he was allegedly involved as an informant for the British during the pre-Independence days of India.
I&B Ministry
Chanchal Kumar appointed MIB secretary
1992-batch officer shifts from DoNER as Sanjay Jaju heads the north-east ministry
New Delhi: The government has rejigged its top bureaucracy, appointing Chanchal Kumar as secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, replacing Sanjay Kumar Jaju in a swift senior-level switch.
Kumar, a 1992-batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre, moves from the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), where he had been serving as secretary. He steps into MIB as Jaju exits to take charge as secretary, DoNER.
Kumar is no stranger to handling multiple mandates. In December 2025, while at DoNER, he briefly held additional charge as secretary in the Department of Telecommunications during Neeraj Mittal’s leave from December 12 to December 21, ensuring continuity at a critical time.
Jaju, a 1992-batch IAS officer of the Telangana cadre, had taken over as secretary, MIB in February 2024, succeeding Apurva Chandra, who moved to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. His tenure combined administrative continuity with a sharper policy pitch on trust in India’s fast-evolving media and advertising landscape.
Speaking at the AdTrust Summit 2026 organised by the Advertising Standards Council of India, Jaju warned that misleading promotions risk eroding public trust even as digital platforms expand reach for businesses, startups and creators. He flagged rising threats from financial scams, deceptive investment schemes and fraudulent job advertisements targeting vulnerable users.
While noting that commercial speech is protected under freedom of expression, Jaju argued that misleading advertising must face regulatory scrutiny. He pushed for a shift in industry priorities—from scale to credibility, authenticity and transparency—especially in disclosures and sponsored content. Truthfulness, accountability and safeguards for vulnerable audiences, he said, must anchor the ecosystem.
Jaju’s move to DoNER and Kumar’s arrival at MIB signal a calibrated reshuffle at the top—continuity in governance, but with a clear message: credibility is the new currency.
