(Image source from: })

Madras High Court dismissed the PIL filed by Gandhian R Kannan Govindarajulu against the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha's plans to install statues of Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse at 17 places in India including metro cities.

In his PIL, R Kannan Govindarajulu have said that the move of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha to erect the Gandhiji assasin’s statue will denigrate the sentiments of Indians and especially the followers of Gandhiji ideology. He raised the issue to stop consecration of the first Godse memorial at Meerut in Uttar Pradesh on January 30.

Madras High Court’s first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh on Tuesday dismissed the PIL citing the purview of the court and jurisdiction. "Nothing has given rise to cause of action within the territorial jurisdiction of this court, even as alleged by the petitioner. If he is so concerned about the developments in Meerut, he is free to resort to his rights before the Allahabad high court in accordance with law," the judges said.

Govindarajulu had included the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh and the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, besides its Tamil Nadu unit, as respondents. He said that his representations to officials in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, besides the Mahasabha itself, did not yield any result and then only he filed PIL.

Gandhiji was shot dead by Nathuram Godse on Janaury 30, 1948, and Godse was hanged inside Ambala jail on November 15, 1949. Recent remarks of BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj and Right wing activists creating different opinion on Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi.

-Kannamsai