Madras High Court dismisses PIL for direction for including Tamil Nadu tableau in Republic Day parade

The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by advocate P. Babu seeking direction to the Defence Ministry to include the Tamil Nadu tableau in the national Republic Day Parade.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu, while rejecting the petition, said that the petitioner had not submitted any written document to show that Tamil Nadu had applied to participate in the parade.

It also said that there was no mention in the litigant's plea on the reasons cited by the officials to reject the government's plea.

The bench also said that the court cannot interfere in the eleventh hour on a PIL seeking direction.

Tamil Nadu is in a war of words with the Union government after the latter rejected the tableaus presented by the state government.

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, objected strongly to the rejection of the tableaus, noting that the state depicted freedom fighters like V.O. Chidambaranar, poet Subramania Bharathiar who is known as Mahakavi in Tamil Nadu, Rani Velu Nachiyar, who is considered as the first Indian queen to wield a sword against the British, and the Maruthur brothers who were executed by the East India Company.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had, in response to the letter written by the Chief Minister to the Prime Minister, said that the tableaus of Tamil Nadu were rejected in the third round itself by the expert committee. Stalin, however, said that they were rejected in the fourth round without giving any reasons for the same.