Kejriwal told to pay Rs 164 cr in 10 days; AAP seeks ad copies for Publicity department's notice for purported political advertisements

The Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) has issued a recovery notice of Rs 164 crore on the AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal directing him to pay up the money in 10 days with penal interest on Thursday. The party shot back a letter seeking ad copies besides terming the act as perverse and arbitrary.

New Delhi:The AAP has been issued a notice for recovery of Rs 163.62 crore, of which Rs 65 crore accounts for penal interest, for its political advertisements allegedly published as the government advertisements. According to the notice, the Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal will have to complete the payment within 10 days.

AAP National Secretary Pankaj Kumar Gupta has shot-off a letter to the Department of Information and Publicity (DIP) terming the demand as arbitrary, perverse and contrary to the facts and provisions of law. He also demanded that the copies of those advertisements whose cost DIP seek to recover from the party.

"If the AAP convener fails to do so, all consequential legal action including attachment of the properties of the party shall be taken in time bound manner, as per the earlier order of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor G VK Saxena," ANI reported quoting sources. There was no immediate reaction from the Delhi government or the AAP.

Subsequent to the LG's order issued last month, the DIP has served a notice to Kejriwal for recovery of Rs 163.62 crore for the political advertisements of AAP, published in the garb of government advertisements at the cost of public exchequer, the sources added.

While Rs 99,31,10,053 (Rs 99.31 crore) is on account of the principal amount incurred on 'political advertisements' till March 31, 2017, the remaining Rs. 64,30,78,212 (Rs 64.31 crore) is on account of penal interest on this amount. The Delhi government's Directorate of Audit has also deputed a special audit team for conducting an audit of all such political advertisements after March 31, 2017, the sources said.

In 2016, the Delhi High Court had directed the Committee on Content Regulation in Government Advertising (CCRGA) to decide in the matter of complaints regarding political advertisements by AAP government. The three-member CCRGA, in September 2016, said that "the main purpose and objectives of the guidelines framed by the Supreme Court was to prevent misuse of government fund for the projection of image of the politician or the political party in power".

"Since the same has happened even after the Supreme Court judgment, the only way it could be rectified is to make the political party, the main beneficiary in the process of violation, pay for the expenditure incurred by the government," it had said. The committee had directed the Delhi government to get the entire expenditure incurred reimbursed to the state exchequer from the AAP.

A review petition filed by the AAP government on September 22, 2016 before the CCRGA was dismissed. The scrutiny of records had revealed that tentatively an amount of about Rs 97.15 crore, assessed till 31.03.2017 was incurred on advertisements which may be classified into the category of violation of Supreme Court's guidelines on the matter.

The amount has been updated to Rs 106.42 crore after further assessments, the sources added. As per records, out of Rs 106.42 crore, payment of Rs 99.31 crore has already been made to the concerned agencies by DIP and Rs 7.11 crore (approximately) is outstanding.