Govt Should Create Awareness On Writings Of Ambedkar & Other Social Reformers: Bombay High Court

"You (state government) have to change your mindset according to changing times. Earlier people used to go to bookshops but now it is all available at doorstep. Publishers have to bring people to the shops", the court said.

A division bench of Justices Prasanna Varale and Kishore Sant observed that while the Maharashtra government has published "wonderful" volumes of the scriptures of several social reformers, there is little awareness about this in the public.

"Volumes of so many social reformers are published by the Maharashtra government but how many people are aware of this? These volumes are published decades ago and some of them are the most wonderful ones. Care is not taken. Readers have to be brought to the bookshop," it said. The court added that many don't even know the location of the government book shops.

The court in December 2021 had taken suo moto cognizance of the matter after a news report in daily newspaper Loksatta claimed that the Maharashtra government had stalled its project of publishing the writings of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. The court had then appointed Advocate Swaraj Jadhav to prosecute the suo moto PIL and file petition in the court. Senior Advocate Rajiv Chavan was appointed Amicus Curiae for the case.

In a previous hearing, Government pleader Purnima Kantharia had submitted that State Government is taking all appropriate steps to preserve the work of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and an affidavit to that effect will be submitted.

The court expressed its dissatisfaction with the affidavit and noted that it does not have information about the formation of the committee set up to address this issue, the names of the members of the committee, and whether any meeting has been held by the committee and details of their remuneration.

The court directed the state government to file an additional affidavit within two weeks.

Volumes of Ambedkar's writings are being handed to colleges and other institutions, Kantharia said before the court. The court, however, stated that it prefers the committee speak on this rather than the government.

"Let the committee make a statement that these books are reaching the readers. We want to see if the government is taking appropriate steps to ensure that these volumes are published in reasonable time", the court said.

Case No. – SMP/1/2021

Case Title – High Court on Its Own Motion v. State of Maharashtra

Coram – Justice Prasanna Varale and Justice Kishore Sant