CHENNAI: Courts in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry can display portraits of only Mahatma Gandhi and the Tamil poet-saint Thiruvalluvar, the Madras high court has said in a circular in which it instructed the Kancheepuram principal district judge to persuade the bar association at Alandur to remove portraits of BR Ambedkar from the entrance hall of the newly-constructed combined court complex.

The July 7 circular was sent to all district courts.
It referred to incidents in which “damage has been caused to statues of national leaders, leading to friction” and law and order issues in different places.

Lawyer bodies sought nod for Ambedkar portraits
The issue pertains to representations received from various advocate associations seeking permission to unveil portraits of Ambedkar and senior advocates of the association concerned. In a meeting conducted on April 11, the full bench of the high court rejected all such requests.
Listing out various resolutions passed by the full court meeting in this regard, the circular pointed out that in the meeting held on March 11, 2010, “the full court resolved not to permit erection of any more statues on court campuses”.
On April 27, 2013, the full court directed the Kancheepuram principal district judge to persuade the Alandur Court Lawyers Association to remove the portrait of Ambedkar and rejected the request of the Cuddalore Bar to display his picture in the newly-constituted special courts, the circular said.