Calcutta High Court: The Division Bench of Prakash Shrivastava, CJ. and Rajarshi Bharadwaj, J. dismissed a petition which was filed by the petitioner with the plea that having regard to the contribution of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in the freedom struggle, his picture should be printed on the Indian currency.
Having the parties the Court noticed that the similar issue had come up before the Division Bench of the Madras High Court in K.K. Ramesh v. Union of India, 2021 SCC OnLine Mad 5022 wherein initially the Division Bench had directed the authorities to consider the representation and thereafter, taking note of the decision on the said representation the Division Bench of the Madras High Court had dismissed the petition holding that,
“8.This Court is not underestimating the fight and sacrifice made by Netaji Subash Chandra Bose and other great leaders for freedom moment of this Country. There are many known heroes and unsung heroes. If everybody starts making such a claim there will not be an end. Moreover, recent days, there are claims and counter claims based on religion, community and region. If every claim is started to be entertained, there will not be any end. The Central Government as well as Reserve Bank of India have already constituted a Committee and took a decision that it is only the father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi could represent the ethos of India and therefore, it was decided to retain the Mahatma Gandhi’s image in the currency notes and no other personality image is decided to be included. The said decision cannot be found fault with. It is only the Government which can take a decision and this Court cannot substitute the views stated in the Committee report which has been accepted by the Government.”
The Court dismissed the petition relying on the abovementioned order and clarified that the abovementioned issue has already been considered the Committee constituted by the Reserve Bank of India who had deliberated upon similar prayer and had not found it feasible to accept it.[Haren Bagchi Biswas v. Union of India, 2022 SCC OnLine Cal 898, decided on 05-04-2022]
Mr Rabindra Narayan Dutta, Mr Sibasis Ghosh, Mr Hare Krishna Halder, Mr Ardhendu Nag, Mr Arkoday Mukherjee: for the petitioner
Mr Y. J. Dastoor, ASG, Ms Sarda Sha: for the respondent 1
Mr Prasun Ghosh, Ms Suchishmita Chatterjee (Ghosh): for the respondent 2
