The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court recently directed a petitioner seeking setting up of a Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue in Nanded to deposit an amount of Rs 3 lakh to “test his bona fides” and as a precondition of hearing the PIL. A division bench of Justice Ravindra V Ghuge and Justice Sanjay A Deshmukh on February 10 was hearing PIL by Rahul Narayan Bhosale, who claimed that he was heading the ‘Rayatecha Raja Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’ Statue Committee, at Loha in Nanded District, which has collected Rs 50 lakh to erect the statue. The bench noted the report by HC registry indicated that the petition “lacked” the object of public interest.
