Justifying statues built in Uttar Pradesh with taxpayers money during her regime, former UP Chief Minister and BSP supremo Mayawati on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the state legislature showed respect to a Dalit woman leader.

"With the statues, the state legislature had shown respect to a Dalit woman leader. How could I defy the will of the state legislature," Mayawati stated in her affidavit before the apex court in reply of a petition accusing her of glorifying herself.

"Whether the money should have been spent on education or hospitals "is a debatable question and can't be decided by a court," the affidavit read.

In February, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had said he was of the tentative view that the BSP chief has to reimburse the taxpayers' money used in building the statues. But he stopped short of passing an order to hear what Mayawati had to say.

The top court is hearing a 2009 petition against the profusion of statues of Mayawati, her mentor Kanshi Ram and elephants - her party BSP's symbol - built at parks in Lucknow and Noida with taxpayers' money when she was the Chief Minister between 2007 and 2012. The statues of bronze, cement and marble had critics accusing her of self-obsession and megalomania.

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