According to news reports, the Solicitor General told the Supreme Court that the Centre had rejected MontBlanc’s two applications seeking such permission on grounds that national emblems could not be used for commercial purposes.
As a result, the Court has decided to dispose of the case after MontBlanc’s counsel gave an undertaking that the remaining pens and advertisements would be withdrawn. The decision was on a PIL filed by one Harsh Vardhan Surna who drew the Court’s attention to the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950, according to which “the name or pictorial representation of Mahatma Gandhi” cannot be used for any commercial purposes.
Read reports from TOI, the Hindu, DNA and Economic Times/IANS here.
Readers may recall the last post we had run on the issue pertained to a petition before the Kerala High Court, where the luxury pens company had given an oral undertaking that it would not sell any pens with the image of Gandhiji, till such time as its application for permission was decided by the Central Government. Now that the permission has been denied, I see no issue of further controversy. Our earlier reports on this are here and here.
