A worker waters plants near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside Parliament on Monday. (PTI)

New Delhi, May 3: The Supreme Court today directed Montblanc from selling Mahatma Gandhi-embossed pens in India after the Centre acknowledged Gandhi’s name and images were a “national emblem” and could not to be used for commercial purposes.

A PIL filed in the top court had challenged the use of the name of the Mahatma, a symbol of simplicity, to sell two sets of gold-studded Montblanc pens — one costing Rs 1.5 lakh and another a staggering Rs 12 lakh.

Solicitor-general Gopal Subramanium said the Centre had rejected two applications, from the Germany-based Montblanc International GMBH and Delhi’s Montblanc Boutique, to use the Mahatma’s name and image.

Following the government’s submission, a bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said the order would be binding on all distributors who have stocks of such pens.

The concept of using the Mahatma as a “poster boy”, the PIL alleged, came only after the interest generated by the recent auction of the Mahatma’s articles in London.

“In the garb of honouring the man, some people were using the Mahatma as a poster boy for commercial gains,” the plea, filed by lawyer Harsh Vardhan Surana, said.

The company gave an undertaking that it would not use the Mahatma’s name and picture. It claimed, however, it had not sold any such pens after it gave an undertaking to Kerala High Court in February not to do so.

Some 241 of the high-priced pens had been released in India to commemorate the Mahatma’s 140th birth anniversary last year. The number 241, Montblanc had said, was symbolic of the number of miles the Mahatma had covered during his Dandi march as a protest against the British colonial rulers’ decision to tax salt.

Section 3 of the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950, lists the name or pictorial representation of Mahatma Gandhi among the items that cannot be used for trade, business or profession, the PIL said.

The Centre had earlier washed its hands of the issue, saying the copyright of Gandhi’s works and other inheritance lay with the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation headed by his grandson Tushar Gandhi, who was free to permit anyone to use the Gandhi name.