Court refuses to restrain TN from rolling out 'Nalam Kaakkum Stalin'

THE Madras High Court on Thursday refused to restrain the state government from rolling out the 'Nalam Kaakkum Stalin' scheme — which provides comprehensive health checkups for the public — but emphasized that the Supreme Court guidelines on using leaders' photos and names in government's publicity content must strictly be adhered to.

- R SIVAKUMAR @ Chennai

The state government has proposed to launch the scheme on August 2.

The plea for an interim injunction against the launch of the scheme was made by senior counsel Vijay Narayan, representing former AIADMK minister C Ve Shanmugam, before the first bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Sunder Mohan, during the hearing of the petitions filed by the latter and an advocate, Iniyan, praying for orders to injunct the government from using the name 'Stalin' in the 'Ungaludan Stalin' scheme.

Shanmugam also sought the court to issue directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Committee on Content Regulation in Government Advertising to take necessary action against the DMK under Paragraph 16A of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, and consequently forbear the Tamil Nadu Public Secretary from using the name 'Stalin' in relation to the activities of the scheme emanating from the GO dated June 19, 2025.

The bench said, "There will be a direction to the government that the SC's guidelines on use of photographs and names shall strictly be followed."