Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Anil Baijal, has asked the ruling Aam Aadmi Party to pay Rs 97 crore within a month for the misuse of public money by its government on advertisements. He has also asked Chief Secretary MM Kutty to conduct an inquiry into the spendings, reported PTI.

Of the Rs 97 crore, the government has already paid Rs 42 crore to advertisement agencies. Baijlal has asked the party to reimburse the amount spent and to pay the remaining Rs 55 crore from its funds. “The Lt Governor has now directed the chief secretary to get the amount from AAP,” an official told the news agency.

The order comes six months after a panel appointed by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry on directions of the Supreme Court had found that the AAP violated the top court’s guidelines. The three-member panel – comprising former Chief Election Commissioner BB Tandon, advertising executive Piyush Pandey and journalist Rajat Sharma – had also directed the party to reimburse the money spent on such ads.

The committee was formed after Congress leader Ajay Maken alleged that the AAP violated the Supreme Court’s guidelines on nine grounds. When asked by the panel for its response on the ads, the Delhi government on August 30 had said it took a “conscious decision to communicate the path-breaking accomplishments made in health, education, water supply, roads, etc, to not only the citizenry of Delhi but also the people across the country”.

The Supreme Court had issued guidelines on such expenditure in a ruling on May 13, 2015. The top court had ruled that government ads cannot feature chief ministers or other political leaders. However, it exempted photos of the prime minister, the president and the chief justice. However, last year, the court relaxed its rules and allowed photos of union ministers and chief ministers to be exempted, reported NDTV.