COMMITTEE ON CONTENT REGULATION IN GOVERNMENT ADVERTISING-(CCRGA)

1. Context 

2. Key Points

• The order calls for recovering ₹97.14 crores plus interest from the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for "political advertisements" published or telecast as government advertisements in 2015 and 2016.
• The move added to the long list of escalations between the AAP-led Delhi government and the L-G.

3. Supreme Court judgment on CCRGA

• A three-member body, the CCRGA was formed by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in April 2016, on the directions of the Supreme Court in its judgment in the Common Cause vs. Union of India case in May 2015.
• The body is set up to regulate the content of Central and State government advertisements on all media platforms.
• The SC had also mandated States to constitute their respective bodies.
• While some States have set up committees to regulate public advertising content, some have given consent to the CCRGA to monitor their advertisements.
• The SC, in its order, had also issued a set of guidelines for public-funded advertising by governments.

4.  Delhi High Court order 

• Months after its formation, the CCRGA, following a complaint from Congress leader Ajay Maken, issued notices to the Delhi government on allegations of violation of the SC-mandated guidelines in publishing advertisements.
• In its response, the Delhi government informed the CCRGA that it was going to form a committee of its own as per the 2015 order of the SC, which mandated that States have to set up their respective bodies to regulate government advertisement content.
• The Delhi High Court in the matter ruled in August 2016 that Union Territories are not authorised to constitute their committees and will, therefore, come under the jurisdiction of the CCRGA.
• The CCRGA, after its investigation, passed an order on September 16, 2016, ruling that several Delhi government advertisements had violated the guidelines on various fronts such as publishing false or misleading ads, mentioning the party in power by name, self-glorification and targeting political opponents.

5. Committee's Direction

• The Committee also directed the Delhi government's Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP), which issues government campaigns, to identify specific advertisements, quantify the money spent on them and recover it from the AAP.
• After quantifying an amount of ₹97,14,69,137 spent on these advertisements, the DIP on March 30, 2017, directed AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal to pay ₹42, 26, 81,265 to the State exchequer immediately and to release the remaining amount directly to the agencies or publications which ran the advertisements within 30 days.

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