Plan to put Lakshadweep under Karnataka HC It is under Kerala HC jurisdiction now
Press Trust of India first week of December last Kochi/ New Delhi year, when former Adminis- The Lakshadweep adminis- trator Dineshwar Sharma tration, which has been fac- died after a brief illness. ing widespread protests ov- This year, as many as 23 er its policies, has mooted a applications, including 11 proposal to shift its legal ju- writ petitions, have been risdiction from the Kerala filed against the Administra- High Court to the Karnataka tor and also against the al- High Court, officials said. leged high-handedness of The proposal was initiat- either the police or the local ed by the administration af- government of the islands. ter several litigation were The proposal for shifting the moved before the Kerala legal jurisdiction from the High Court against the deci- High Court of Kerala to Kar- sions taken by the islands’ nataka comes amid these new Administrator Praful developments. Khoda Patel. These deci- Advisor of the Adminis- sions included revising stan- trator A. Anbarasu did not dard operating procedures respond to queries on the for COVID-appropriate be- proposal. haviour, introduction of the However, Lakshadweep “goonda Act” and demolish- Collector S. Asker Ali said no ing hutments of fishermen proposal had been made by for widening of roads. the administration to shift Mr. Patel, who is the Ad- its legal jurisdiction from ministrator of Daman and the Kerala High Court to the Diu, was given the addition- Karnataka High Court. al charge of the Union Terri- tory of Lakshadweep in the CONTINUED ON Ī PAGE 8 Plan to put Lakshadweep under Karnataka HC
“The news about shifting of “This was his [Patel] first at- the jurisdiction of the High tempt to shift the judicial ju- Court from Kerala to Karna- risdiction from Kerala to taka is baseless and is de- Karnataka.” void of truth,” he said. “Why was he so particu- The jurisdiction of a High lar to transfer it... It’s totally Court can be shifted only a misappropriation of the through an Act of Parlia- post. The mother tongue of ment, according to the law. the people on these islands “Parliament may by law is Malayalam,” he said. constitute a high court for a “One should not forget Union Territory or declare the name of the High Court any court in any such terri- is Kerala and Lakshadweep tory to be a high court for all High Court. This proposal or any of the purposes of was conceived during his this Constitution,” states Ar- first visit to the islands,” he ticle 241 of the Constitution. said. The MP said there have Talking to PTI over been 36 administrators be- phone, Lok Sabha member fore Mr. Patel and none had Mohammed Faizal P.P. said, this kind of an idea.