'Waste of time': Court slams man who wanted 'Mahatma' removed from before Gandhi's name

A research scholar on Tuesday went to Madras High Court with a pleato remove the word 'Mahatma' as a prefix fromGandhi's name, reports said. The court rejected his plea andslapped a fine ofRs 10,000.

The scholar, S Muruganantham, from Jadavpur University in Kolkata, filed hispetition as apublic interest litigation (PIL) but was rejected byChief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar.

According to reports, they stated that this kind of petitions only lead to wastage of time and trapped the courts business.

Muruganantham argued that the act of the government violates Article 14 and 18 of the constitution and further questioned the gravity of adding 'Mahatma'before the name of M K Gandhi in Indian currency notes, saysreports.

Moreover, the scholar further said that when RBI uses 'Mahatma', it violates the principle of equality which constitutes a basic foundation of the constitution, reports said.