Kochi, Dec 13 (IANS): The Kerala High Court on Monday asked a petitioner why he was ashamed of having Prime Minister Narendra Modi's photo on the Covid-19 vaccination certificate.

This question was raised by Justice P.V. Kunhikrishnan who said, "He is our Prime Minister, not the Prime Minister of any other country. He came to power through our mandate. Merely because you have political differences, you cannot challenge this. Why are you ashamed of our PM? 100 crore people don't seem to have an issue with this, so why do you. Everyone has different political opinions, but he is still our Prime Minister. You are wasting judicial time,", said the judge.

When the petitioner's counsel pointed out that other countries do not have such a practise, the judge said, "they may not be proud of their Prime Minister, but we are proud of ours. You should be proud that your vaccination certificate carries the photograph of our PM."

The court also pointed out that the petitioner was the state level master coach at the Jawaharlal Nehru Leadership Institute, which is named after a Prime Minister. "Why don't you ask the university to take that down as well."

The petitioner's counsel continued to defend the petition and finally the court said that it will go through the pleadings in detail with an open mind and decide if it has any merits before dismissing it.