TNN

New Delhi, Mar 4: In an unusual development, the Delhi high court on Tuesday intervened in the controversy over proposed auction of Mahatma Gandhi’s personal belongings in New York, USA, and passed a stay order.

Later in the day, armed with this interim injunction order, the ministry of external affairs began preparing to approach the United States to prevent the auction from going ahead in New York on March 5.

"The ministry of external affairs is going to take up with the US state department the issue with an aim of stalling the auction at Antiquorum Auctioneers in New York," tourism and culture minister Ambika Soni said. The MEA, through Indian consulate in New York, will argue that ownership of these items are in dispute and the Delhi HC has given an injunction to stop the auction.

Earlier, acting on a suit filed by Ahmedabad-based Navjivan Trust, Justice Anil Kumar passed an interim injunction order to prevent Gandhi’s five personal articles from going under the hammer.

While the exact legal reasoning followed by Justice Kumar to pass such an exparte order could not be ascertained as the order wasn’t released to the press, additional solicitor general Mohan Parasaran, appearing for the Trust founded by the Mahatma, informed the HC that there was a precedent for such kind of judicial intervention.

Parasaran cited a 1996 Madras high court order where it had given a direction staying an auction of handwritten material of Gandhi by a British firm.