Representational image.
| Photo Credit: PTI

The Madras High Court has refused to restrain private individuals/organisations from conferring titles such as Mr. India, Mr. South India and so on. It has held that it would not amount to misuse of the name of the country for any trade, business, calling or profession.

Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy said, such titles given to winners of bodybuilding competitions would not in any manner violate Section 3 of the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Misuse) Act of 1950 and that it was basically intended to encourage physical fitness among individuals.

The judge dismissed a writ petition filed by Puducherry Body Builders and Fitness Association seeking a direction to the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the government of Puducherry and the Director General of Police to forbear private individuals from using the nomenclature Mr. India and so on.

He pointed out that 1950 Act prohibits the use of the nation’s name or emblem in any trade, business, calling or profession, or in the title of any patent, or in any trademark or design or any name or emblem specified in the Schedule to the Act or any colourable imitation thereof, without the previous permission of the Centre.

As far as bodybuilding was concerned, it is common knowledge that whoever wins the competition gets called as Mr. India, Mr. South India and so on. “That does not in any manner mean that it is the use of national name of the country for any trade, business, calling or profession,” the judge observed.