After the Madras High Court Registry issued a notification prohibiting installation of photos, statues, or portraits of any leader other than Mahatma Gandhi and Saint Thiruvalluvar in courts of Tamil Nadu, the State government has informed the status quo would be maintained in so far as the existing statues and portraits of Dr. BR Ambedkar are concerned.
According to a press release issued by the State Law Department, the Tamil Nadu law minister S Reghupathy met with Madras High Court Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala on Monday to discuss the issue.
Chief Justice Gangapurwala then assured the minister that status quo will be maintained with regard to displaying portraits of leaders within the court premises, the State's press release said.
The release, which is in Tamil, added that the State government had conveyed to the Chief Justice "its position that portraits of Dr BR Ambedkar should not be removed from court premises."
"The Law Minister handed over to the Chief Justice a letter underlining the position of the Tamil Nadu government that the portrait of Annal Ambedkar should not be removed," the press release stated further.
According to the press release, the Chief Justice clarified that there had been no direction issued to remove the portraits of any leader and that status quo would be maintained.
The full court of Madras High Court had, on April 11, reiterated its earlier decision to not have photos, statues or portraits of any leader other than Mahatma Gandhi and Saint Thiruvalluvar in courts and court premises in Tamil Nadu.
The Court had, therefore, turned down the requests made by various advocates' associations to have the portrait of Dr. BR Ambedkar inside courts in the State.
A circular was also issued by the Registrar General on July 7, which said that the full court of the High Court took the decision keeping in mind the series of earlier resolutions passed since October 2008, when it had first rejected the plea by a lawyers' group to display the portrait of Dr. Ambedkar inside the Court.