Supreme court serves notice to Centre, Montblanc over Gandhi's name

The Supreme Court today sought a response of the Centre and an international luxury giant on a PIL seeking to restrain the "misuse" of the picture and name of Mahatma Gandhi for commercial purposes.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan issued notices on the petition filed by two lawyers claiming Montblanc Boutique and Montblanc International GmbH were misusing Mahatma Gandhi's name for commercial marketing.

"It concerns the national pride and honour of the country. The very act is breaching the fundamental right of every citizen...the right to live with pride, dignity and honour as enshrined in the Constitution," the petition said.

The petition filed by Harsh Vardhan Surana and Sandeep Singh alleged the company involved in Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, "which is being governed by the people with self interest", in its project only for the sake of money and commercial gains.

"This company is using his greatness for its selfish gains. What they are doing now is nothing charitable but only for commercial gains. For the sake of money, the company has involved the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation governed by people with self interest," the PIL said.

"The company is using the greatness of the person to sell an ordinary product at unbelievably high prices," the petitioner said.