A District Magistrate Court in Delhi has ruled that the Advertising Standards Council of India’s (ASCI) decisions are applicable to members and non-members alike.

The judgement comes close on the heels of the Consumer Protection Act was passed in Parliament recently, recognising ASCI’s status as a self-regulatory industry body.

Until now, a large number of advertisers avoided becoming members of ASCI because of the notion that they would not have to abide by the council’s decisions.

The Tis Hazari district court, in the ‘Primordial Systems P. Ltd. v. the Advertising Standards Council of India’ case, ruled in favour of the advertising self-regulatory body.

The complainant advertiser (Primordial Systems) had argued that as it was not a member of ASCI, the self-regulation code laid down by the council was not applicable to it and that ASCI had no jurisdiction on the advertiser.

The court said ASCI had the power to, after following due process, provide recommendations to the advertiser to modify or remove an advertisement containing claims that are considered as misleading by the ASCI’s independent Consumer Complaints Council (CCC).