A bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi issued notice to the government on a plea by the NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation, seeking a judicial review of the court's verdict on May 13, 2015 verdict exempting the Prime Minister from a ban on politicians' photographs, including Chief Ministers, on government advertisements. The order was uploaded on Supreme Court website late this evening.

The Supreme Court posted the case for open court hearing on October 27, 2015.

In its application, the NGO contended that the exemption from the ban “gives him (PM) and the political party he belongs to, mileage over the political opponents”.

“Recent advertisements would show that such advertisements have the potential to create partisan politics, favouring party in power and putting opposition in bad light,” the petition, represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, stated.

In a judgment on May 13, 2015, the Supreme Court had issued guidelines for the publication of government advertisements and held that publication of photographs of politicians and government functionaries, including Chief Ministers, defeated the public interest behind advertising welfare schemes and encouraged “personality cults”.

However, the bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, exempted the President, the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India from this ban, leaving it to their discretion to decide whether they wanted their pictures to published in the advertisements or not.