Read Time: 05 minutes

The Calcutta High Court recently dismissed a Public Interest Litigation plea moved by a 98-year-old freedom fighter namely Haren Bagchi Biswas praying that having regard to the contribution of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in the freedom struggle, his picture should be printed on the Indian currency.

The bench of Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, referring to the judgment of the Madras High Court in K.K. Ramesh vs. The Union of India and Ors., noted that a Committee constituted by the Reserve Bank of India has already deliberated upon a similar prayer and had not found it feasible to accept it.

Court noted that when similar issue came up before the division bench of the Madras High Court, the division bench, at first, directed the authorities to consider the representation, and thereafter, taking note of the decision on the said representation, it held that it is only the Government which can take a decision and Court cannot substitute the views stated in the Committee report which has been accepted by the Government.

Authoring the judgment in K.K. Ramesh vs. The Union of India and Ors, the division bench of the Madras High Court had noted, 

"On the advice of the Government of India, a Committee was constituted by the Reserve Bank of India in October 2010 for designing future currency notes and the Committee deliberated on the issue of changing the existing image of Mahatma Gandhi and inclusion of certain other personalities in the new design of Banknotes. However, the Committee decided that no other personality could better represent the ethos of India than Mahatma Gandhi and therefore, no other personality image was decided to be included in the currency note."

The division bench had observed, "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."

"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," the Madras High Court had held. 

Case Title: Haren Bagchi Biswas alias Harendranath Biswas v. Union of India & Ors.