The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed private parties and trusts to issue political advertisements in the electronic media, but only after these are approved by the Election Commission.

Delivering the order, a three-judge bench said a private party issuing a political advertisement would have to make payments by cheque to the television channel concerned and also disclose its source of funding.

It will also have to give an undertaking that it is not affiliated to any political party.

The court directed the Election Commission to order its chief electoral officers in each state to form committees at the district level to clear such advertisements.

For the first phase of polling, scheduled for April 20, the committees will take two days to clear the submitted advertisements, while for the rest of the phases they will get three days to study the material submitted.

The committees would be headed by district magistrates.

The SC order comes into effect on April 16.

In case an advertisement favours a particular candidate or is funded by him or her, this would have to be brought to the committee's notice so that the money spent could be added to the poll expenses of the candidate concerned.