Noting that the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government was spending crores on advertisements while failing to fulfill its assurance to allocate its share of funds for the Regional Rapid Rail Transit System Project, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the city government to transfer its advertisement funds for the project. The court, however, kept the order in abeyance for a week, stating that it would come into operation if the government failed to voluntarily transfer the funds for the project within a week.
The Delhi government had submitted an undertaking before the Supreme Court in April this year, stating that it will make budgetary provisions for the RRTS project. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia termed the government’s failure to meet its assurances as a gross breach” on its part. The court further noted that the AAP government had set aside Rs 1,100 crore for advertisements in the last three years while Rs 550 crore has been set aside as the advertising budget for this year.
“If such national projects are affected, and if money is being spent on advertisement, we would be inclined to ask the money to be directed to the infrastructure,” the bench stated in its order. The matter was listed by the bench for hearing after a week and Justice Kaul said that the order would come into effect if the Delhi government failed to transfer the funds by then.
The Supreme Court had previously asked the Delhi government to disclose its budgetary allocations towards ad spends in the last three financial years. The directive came after the court was apprised that the Delhi government was not making contributions to the RRTS project due to budgetary constraints.