The Madras High Court on Friday refused to restore a public interest litigation petition which had sought a direction to display the portraits of President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in all State government offices and public buildings. The court imposed a cost of ₹10,000 on the litigant and ordered that it should be paid to a Government Medical College.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy also restrained the litigant R. Jayakkumar, a Bharatiya Janata Party member from Cuddalore, from filing public interest litigation petitions in the High Court for the next three years without obtaining the express permission of the Bench concerned. They said the litigant could adorn his private property with portraits than filing such petitions.
The court had disposed of the PIL petition on April 7 after finding that the petitioner’s counsel was not present on two occasions. “It is evident that the petitioner has lost interest in the matter,” the judges said and disposed of the matter after recording the submissions of Advocate General Vijay Narayan that it was not mandatory to display portraits of a host of personalities in all public buildings.
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The AG said that a 2006 Government Order (G.O.) uses the word ‘may’ and therefore it was up to the authorities concerned to display some of a long list of portraits mentioned in the G.O.