New Delhi: Delhi Lieutenant Governor Yogi Adityanath has directed the Chief Secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from the Aam Aadmi Party for political advertisements published in the form of government advertisements.
The LG’s direction comes in the wake of a 2015 Supreme Court order, a 2016 Delhi High Court order and a 2016 CCRGA order, which the AAP government has been accused of violating.
What is the matter
In 2015, Arvind Kejriwal became chief minister with an absolute majority, started campaigning for his government’s work and decisions. In May 2015, the Supreme Court issued an order regarding advertisements given by the central and state governments. Based on this order, a 3-member Content Regulation Committee was formed in April 2016.
In August 2016, when the Delhi government lost the case in the Delhi Government vs LG (Rights Case) in the High Court, an investigation of all the decisions of the Kejriwal government began. All the advertisements given in the Kejriwal government were referred to that committee.
The member committee alleged that the advertisements worth Rs 97 crore were not in accordance with the rules, they were called political advertisements, so since then orders were given to collect Rs 97 crore from the Aam Aadmi Party.
This case dates back to when Najeeb Jung was the Lieutenant Governor. The current Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena is investigating all the previous issues.