By IANS,

New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Thursday dismissed criminal proceedings against eminent painter M.F. Husain, who lives in self imposed exile in London and Dubai and was alleged to have hurt public sentiments through some of his paintings.

Giving relief to the 91-year-old painter, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said the allegations were baseless.

"A painter has his own perspective of looking at things and it cannot be the basis of initiating criminal proceedings against him," Kaul said in his order.

Complaints against Husain filed at three different places were clubbed together on the direction of the Supreme Court in September last year.

Husain had approached the apex court pleading that he was getting on in years and it was physically not possible for him to go to Haridwar to attend court hearings. The Supreme Court had earlier transferred two other similar cases, involving allegedly obscene paintings done by Husain of Bharat Mata and Hindu goddesses, to the Patiala House courts from Bhopal and Indore.