PIL to protect lovers on V-Day

Advocate who filed the PIL also wants unregistered organisations like the Sri Rama Sene and Bajrang Dal banned

PIL to protect lovers on V-Day

Advocate who filed the PIL also wants unregistered organisations like the Sri Rama Sene and Bajrang Dal banned

The man who fought against moral cops wanting to stall the Miss World contest in 1996 is now fighting for Bangalore's right to celebrate Valentine's Day.

In his public interest litigation, advocate A V Amarnath has asked the court to ban all unregistered organisations including the Sri Rama Sene and has asked for lovers celebrating Valentine's Day to be safeguarded.

There's a minor hitch, however. The PIL could not beu00a0 admitted in court for the past three days since the chief justice is out of town.

"The chief justice is in the circuit bench in Dharwad and is expected to return on Thursday. If he returns, the PIL may be admitted on Thursday. I am optimistic that things will move fast, since we have just two more days for Valentine's," said Amarnath.

Amarnath, 52, who wants lovers to celebrate Valentine's Day fearlessly, is also taking on the Sri Rama Sene,

Bajrang Dal and other unregistered organisations who threaten to take law into their hands. The Registrar of Societies is a second party in his PIL.

"All these are unregistered organisations. Only Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is registered in Uttar Pradesh. The Sri Rama Sene and Bajrang Dal are not registered. The address of its (Sri Rama Sene's) head office is (Pramod) Mutalik's house in Hubli. As for Kannada Rakshana Vedike, only Narayan Gowda's faction is registered," he said.

Amarnath insists that organisations should be registered so that they are accountable. "Registered organisations have aims and objectives and bye-laws. But unregistered ones like the Sri Rama Sene have nothing of this. They do whatever comes to mind," he said.

Registered organisations have to maintain details of their members. But with unregistered bodies, "Anyone can join.u00a0 They don't even have addresses of their members. We do not know where they get their money," he said.

Amarnath has filed 60 PILs so far, one of which was in support of the Miss World contest held in Bangalore in 1996.

"One group had filed a PIL that it was obscene. I then filed a PIL saying that if this was obscene then what about the carvings in the temples at Belur. I won and the pageant went on. The organisers gave me a pass and invited me for dinner," he said.

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