Allahabad High Court Junks PIL Seeking Direction To UOI, UP Govt To 'Fix' Date/Place Of Birth Of Goswami Tulsidas

The Allahabad High Court earlier this month dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea to the Union of India as well as the UP Govt to fix and recognize the correct date and place of birth of revered Hindu saint and author of Ramcharitmanas, Mahakavi Goswami Tulsidas based on the majority of evidence and information available on record.

The bench of Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Om Prakash Shukla observed that the PIL plea involves purely a question that is essentially academic upon which the petitioner himself is uncertain.

"The reliance placed upon by the petitioner upon any textbook having no legal sanctity cannot lead us to opine one way or the other. Such questions are left open for a declaration if the petitioner is so aggrieved," the Court said as it dismissed the PIL plea for being misconceived.

Essentially, the PIL plea, which also sought correction of the date/place of birth of Gioswami Tulsidas in the Text Books/Records of the opposite parties and scriptures, was filed through Professor Shailendra Nath Mishra, presently working at Lal Bahadur Shashtri Degree College, Gonda through Advocate Ganesh Nath Mishra.

The PIL plea stated that a question regarding the correct date of birth and correct birthplace of Goswami Tulsidas is being raised by Scholars and prominent persons from time to time, as there exists confusion regarding the same since in the different Texts and Books of the different Courses, different dates of birth and different birthplace have been mentioned.

The PIL plea called it "very unfortunate" that despite being renowned, prominent and noble for all, Goswami Tulsidas' date of birth and birthplace has yet not been recognized/ fixed and different dates of birth and places of birth are being mentioned in different texts and books.

It was also stated in the PIL plea at least 13 places in Inda are being claimed to be the birthplace of Tulsidas including Chitrakoot, Hastinapur, Rajapur (Gonda) Chitrakoot, and Rampur and therefore, it was necessary to give a finality to the issue.

Case title - Dr. Shailendranath Mishra vs. Union Of India Thru. Secy. Ministry Of Human Resources And Development India Govt.New Delhi And Ors [PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL) No. - 692 of 2023]

Case Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (AB) 262

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