The Gujarat High Court clarified that, it is Rabindranath Tagore, who used the title ‘Mahatma’, for Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Referring to the answer key of job exam held by a Rajkot local body, a confusion was created as to who actually gave the title Mahatma.

While the Gujarat government strongly argued that, it is a journalist, who coined the word for Gandhi, several investigations were done on the issue and finally High Court came forward declaring that what Indians believed for decades is not false.

While disposing of a petition, Justice JB Pardiwala noted that all school textbooks prove that Tagore awarded Mahatma title to Gandhi.

Sandhya Maru, a candidate, who wrote the exam for the post of panchayat talati, conducted by Rajkot District Panchayat Sikshan Samiti, has challenged the answer key of the examination.

Maru said that, due to ambiguity about who titled Gandhi as ‘Mahatma’, she lost marks as the examination had negative marking system. As per the key released by the Samiti, the answer to the question was an "unknown journalist".

Along with the above, Maru even challenged the answers to two other questions. The Samithi’s key showed the answers for the longest river of India is Brahmaputra and article before Mt Everest is ‘a’.

The court made it clear that longest river of India is ‘Ganga’, while the word Mt Everest will not have any article (a, an or the) before it.

The court directed the Samiti to make changes in the result of the petitioner Sandhya Maru, by adding appropriate marks.

By Phani Ch