A PIL has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking direction to the Centre to remove megastar Amitabh Bachchan's voice from the caller tune on precautions against coronavirus on the grounds that he himself, along with some family members, had been infected by the virus.
The plea, which said there were some famous corona warriors who were willing to give their services for free, came up for hearing on Thursday before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh.
The bench listed it for January 18 as the petitioner's counsel expressed inability to appear for physical hearing.
The petition, filed by Delhi resident and social worker Rakesh, said the government engaged Bachchan for making people aware of preventive measures to fight the COVID-19 pandemic while the superstar himself as well as other members of his family could not escape it.
The government of India has been paying fees to Amitabh Bachchan for chanting such preventive measures on the caller ringtone, said the plea, filed through advocates A K Dubey and Pawan Kumar.
"There are some corona warriors who have been doing great service to the nation and helping poor and needy people in their needy times as well as providing them food, cloth and shelter and it is very indispensable to mention herein that some corona warriors have distributed their hard earnings among the poor and needy people," the plea said.
It added that some famous corona warriors are still ready to give their services without any payment and are ready to serve the nation.
Amitabh Bachchan is not having a clean history as well as he is not serving the nation being a social worker, the plea alleged while referring to several matters pending against him in various courts.
The petitioner said he made representation to the authorities in November 2020 but no reply was given to him after which he approached the court with his grievance.
"...remove the caller tune of Amitabh Bachchan of corona from the mobile in the interest of justice," it sought.