Bengaluru: A public interest litigation has been filed in the high court seeking directions to quash an order of the state government to celebrate Tipu Sultan Jayanti across the state. The petitioner, K. P, Manjunath, had sought directions to quash the circular issued by the Kannada and Culture department to celebrate Tipu Jayanthi, and also to restrain its celebrations in Kodagu.
The petitioner alleged that Tipu Sultan had committed lot of atrocities against Kodava community and if Tipu Jayanti is allowed to be celebrated there, it will result in communal disharmony."Tipu Sultan's reign resulted in the conversion and killings of thousands of Kodava as a retaliation to his defeat," the petition stated. There was large scale communal violence when Tipu Jayanti was celebrated in 2015, he added.
Judges vacancy
Acting high court chief justice H.G. Ramesh on Thursday directed to list a PIL, seeking to fill the vacancies of judges in the high court, before another bench. He directed to place PIL before another bench, as he is a part of the high court collegium which is a party to the petition.The bench was hearing a petition filed by retired high court Justice A.N. Venugopalgowda, who has moved the court seeking directions to fill up judges vacancies.
The petitioner had stated that pending vacancies were taking a toll on the existing judges as they have to deal with rising number of pending cases in the high court. The judges are forced to take up cases that do not come under their purview and expertise and this affects the quality of the justice delivered, it added.
