Publicity stunt: Karnataka HC dismisses PIL on Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, "missing volume" of his book

The Karnataka High Court on Monday refused to entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) petition questioning why the government of India took 17 years to set up a judicial panel of inquiry to look into the conspiracy behind the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice KS Hemalekha termed the petition a publicity stunt and dismissed it with costs.

The Court also noted that the same petitioner had earlier also filed a similar petition seeking answers about an alleged 'missing' volume of Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography, My Experiments with Truth. A similar prayer was raised in the latest petition as well.

"Present petition is not substantiated by sufficient material. The noted above filed an earlier petition to inquire about the missing volume of Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography. The said petition was dismissed on August 28, 2025. We find the present petition is an exercise in procuring publicity rather than seeking any relief in public interest. We are not persuaded to entertain this petition. Same is dismissed with costs quantified at ₹10,000 to be deposited with the legal aid services within 2 weeks," the Court ordered today.

The plea was filed last year by an organisation named Jagrutha Karnataka, Jagrutha Bharatha, represented by its President KN Manjunatha,

The petition called for the constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to examine why it was only in 1965 that the government decided to set up a judicial inquiry commission to probe Gandhi's 1947 assassination.

It further asked for a probe into Gandhi's letters, and a search for an allegedly "missing" Volume II of Gandhi's autobiography, which was allegedly contained in boxes of documents shifted out of the Nehru Museum in 2008.

Another prayer made in the petition was for an inquiry into what triggered Gandhi to "consider armed conflict" as an option to prevent the partition of India in a letter addressed in May 1947 to the British viceroy.

It may be noted that in his 1947 letter, Gandhi had urged the British government not to interfere with any possible partition of India. The letter added that if it all a partition happens, it should only be after the withdrawal of the British colonial government, whether the partition arises due to an agreement betweek stakeholders in India or due to a possible armed conflict.

In an earlier petition that was dismissed last year, the Jagrutha Karnataka, Jagrutha Bharatha had alleged that there were serious gaps in Indian history, and argued that such a distortion of Indian history has had a destabilising effect on the country.

One of the questions posed in this petition was regarding the alleged missing 'volume 2' of Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography, which the petitioner claimed covered events surrounding the freedom struggle and India's independence from 1927 to 1947.

The petitioner implied that the Congress Party and Nehru did not publish this volume. The petitioner further questioned whether the publication of this alleged missing volume was banned.

He had sought directions from the Court to compel replies to representations that he had sent to various parties, including the Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, former Supreme Court Bar Association President Kapil Sibal and the Central and State Education Ministries.

The Court, however, saw no reason to entertain the petition and dismissed it.