Lucknow, Dec. 10 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has disposed of a public interest litigation petition seeking sweeping directions to the Union and state governments to prevent alleged denigration of Hindu deities and religious scriptures, holding that the reliefs sought amounted to a request for a general mandamus (direction), which the court cannot issue. The division bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Indrajeet Shukla, in its December 4 order, granted liberty to the petitioners to approach the relevant Union or state ministry for remedy, adding that authorities may consider such representations in accordance with law. Filed by Hindu Front for Justice through its national convenor, Sharad Chandra Srivastava and 8 others, the PIL sought "effective and forceful steps" to prevent the dishonour of Hindu deities and texts. They requested the court to direct the government authorities to take "effective and forceful steps" to prevent the denigration, dishonour and disfigurement of Hindu deities and to ensure that incidents such as the burning or insulting of religious books, including the Ramcharitmanas, the Manusmriti, the Bhagavad Gita and the Valmiki Ramayana, do not recur. The court noted that the petitioners had not challenged any specific incident and had instead sought broad, preventive directions. Such omnibus prayers, it said, fall outside the scope of PIL jurisdiction....