CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Monday observed that no symbol of any political party or pictures of political leaders can be printed on the Pongal gift tokens issued by the State for Rs 2,500. The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy passed the directions before closing a petition moved by the DMK.
Senior advocate P Wilson sought for the court to pass a direction so that no pictures of political leaders are printed on the token. Countering the submission, Advocate-General Vijay Narayan said as per the earlier directions of the court, two circulars were issued on December 30, 2020, to all ration shops to ensure that tokens with pictures are not entertained.
The bench observed that printing pictures of leaders on token of such State-sponsored schemes would amount to advertising the person.