A public interest litigation (PIL) seeking to regulate godmen and astrologers was filed on Friday before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court. The petitioners, IPS officer Amitabh Thakur and social activist Nutan Thakur, asked the court to put some regulatory mechanism for godmen and astrologers.

The petition says India has a very large number of astrologers and godmen with claims of divinity and supernatural powers. Most of them charge money for their services, and so they must be treated as professionals.

Amitabh Thakur told IANS that they also need to be regulated by appropriate professional bodies so as to safeguard the interest of common people and to expose cheats. Hence, he said, they have asked for two professional bodies at the national and regional levels - made up of people from these fields -- to regulate astrologers and godmen.