A public interest litigation was filed in Andhra Pradesh High Court for stopping all government advertisements to Eenadu daily. The PIL is filed by an advocate named C Dharma Reddy,
The contention is that the paper should not be given government advertisements as Eenadu management has been facing many cases in courts. The case is obviously filed by a supporter of Jagan Mohan Reddy and Sakshi management.
The argument of the state government in stopping advertisements to Sakshi paper and channel is that a charge-sheet was filed by CBI against Jagan accusing him of laundering kickbacks into his media houses. Since the CBI is going into the investments into these outlets, the government could not give away huge amounts of public money in the form of advertisements to Sakshi.
Using the same logic, the petitioner in his PIL contended since Eenadu management is involved in many cases in various courts, the court should direct the government to stop all advertisements to the paper.
Many other interesting arguments have been put forward by the petitioner to buttress his plea. Eenadu is publishing reports which are against pubic interest; they are partial and one-sided.
Eenadu, through its columns, is working against Congress government and is reporting in a way that is favourable to opposition TDP. The petitioner also alleged that in many important cases – the reference is apparently to Jagan cases -, the paper has been publishing adverse and negative reports against some people.
The petition was filed by an advocate and not by YSR Congress Party for a reason among many others. For one, Sakshi management has been questioning in the courts the right of the government to unilaterally stop advertisements to a paper. It has been alleging that the action was politically motivated, as Sakshi is owned by Jagan Mohan Reddy, founder of YSR Congress.
In this backdrop, it would be unwise for YSR Congress or Sakshi to file a case deflating its own arguments. Hence filing the petition in the name of PIL by a third party.
