HC dismisses plea to rename Madurai Gandhi Museum

Madurai: Madras high court has dismissed a plea seeking a direction to the authorities to rename Gandhi Memorial Museum in Madurai as Rani Mangammal Palace.The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by G Saravanan.

According to the petitioner, the present Gandhi Memorial Museum was known as Rani Mangammal Palace during the 17th Century.

In 1955, the state govt gifted the palace and 13 acres of surrounding land to All India Gandhi Smarak Nidhi to establish the museum to honour the father of the nation. As a heritage and artistic preservation, the place has to be renamed as Rani Mangammal Palace, he stated.The petitioner also sought to reconstruct the Rani Mangammal chatram and Karupatti chartram in Madurai.A division bench of Justice N Sathish Kumar and Justice M Jothiraman observed that the petitioner has no locus to seek such prayer. The court does not find any merits in this petition, the judges observed and dismissed it.