(Representative mage)

CHENNAI: A research scholar, who approached the Madras high court seeking a direction to the central government to refrain from using the word 'Mahatma' as a prefix to Gandhi's name in currency notes , was slapped with a cost of Rs 10,000 for wasting judicial time.

Dismissing the petition moved as a public interest litigation (PIL) by S Muruganantham, a research scholar at Jadavpur University in Kolkata, the first bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar said this type of PIL’s only clogged the business of the court and consumed valuable time of the judiciary.

Questing the constitutional validity of prefixing the title 'Mahatma' before the name of M K Gandhi in Indian currency notes, the petitioner contended that the act of the government was in compete violation of Article 14 and 18 of Constitution.

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Also, when the Reserve Bank of India uses the prefix, it amounts to violation of the principle of equality which is the basic structure of Constitution, according to the petitioner.

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