NEW DELHI:An Indian man launched a legal

challenge to halt the sale of $28,000 pens engraved with the image of

Mahatma Gandhi, saying they were an insult to the independence leader, a report said today.

Germany-based Montblanc unveiled the limited-edition fountain pens, which are plated with white

gold and rhodium, in Mumbai last week to mark the 140th anniversary of Gandhi's birth.

Dijo Kapen, from the Centre of Consumer Education in the southern city of Kottayam, filed a petition in Kerala's state high court challenging Montblanc's right to market the pens.

Kapen said the idea was an inappropriate tribute to a man who renounced material possessions, and he cited a law that prohibits the use of Gandhi's image for business purposes without the permission of the government.

But Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi told PTI that Gandhi's image had long been put to commercial use and that Montblanc wished to paid homage the iconic peace campaigner.

Only 241 of the pens will be up for sale, marking the number of miles Gandhi and his followers walked in 1930 to protest a British tax on salt.