HC rejects PIL for covering of Nehru, Indira, Rajiv's statues

The Allahabad High Court today struck down a PIL seeking directions for covering of statues of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi in various parts of Uttar Pradesh as they may help Congress "derive" political mileage during the assembly polls.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice S R Alam and Justice Ran Vijai Singh struck down the public interest litigation filed by Allahabad-based organisation "Adivasi Samajotthan Evam Kalyan Samiti" through its president R K Maurya.

In the PIL, it had been contended that public money had been spent for constructing these statues which were installed by the Congress in various parts of the state and, hence, these should be covered to prevent the party from deriving political mileage.

Another prayer made was that Congress workers be restrained from carrying the national tricolour during the election campaign.

The PIL was filed on January 21, barely a fortnight after the Election Commission had ordered covering of statues of elephant - which is the poll symbol of the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party in the state - and those of party supremo and Chief Minister Mayawati.

Holding that this was necessary to prevent the party in power from "deriving political mileage", a PIL challenging this order of the poll panel was filed in the high court but was similarly struck down on January 24 by another division bench which held that the petition was "frivolous".