Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court on Monday issued a notice to the Centre on a PIL seeking an end to auctioning of articles related to the country`s freedom movement.
The Lucknow bench gave two weeks time to the Centre`s counsel to seek instruction on the litigation filed by a local lawyer Moti Lal Yadav.
The order was passed by a division bench comprising Justices Uma Nath Singh and Virendra Kumar Dixit.
Secretary of External Affairs ministry, secretary department of Archaeological Survey of India and general manager United Bank of India Kolkata have been made parties in the PIL.
The petitioner appealed the court to issue a direction in nature of mandamus commanding the opposite parties not to auction any building, land, property, other things/articles which were related to the national movement.
He also sought direction not to auction building namely Gandhi Bhawan situated at Kolkata.
The petitioner also prayed the court to issue directives to the Centre to bring all the auctioned articles back to the country.
He sought direction to make/keep all the things/articles which were related to the national movement a national property and also recommend for world heritage.
The PIL was based on news articles related to auction of articles related to Mahatma Gandhi in the the country and abroad.
On the request of the central government`s counsel the court gave two-weeks time to seek instruction and fixed May 30 as the next day of hearing.
PTI
