This document may boost State's case in border row

Here is an eye-opener for the State government, which is struggling to implement Kannada as its administrative language.

The then Maharaja’s Tribunal High Court in Mumbai had issued summons in Kannada to a litigant from Belga­um district, way back in 1943. The summons has been made available to Ravindra Totiger, President of the Belgaum unit of the State Advocates’ Sahitya Parishat, by the great grandson of the litigant.

The summons was issued by Sir Jone Vilsory Fisher Bomant Knight - then Chief Justice - on March 29, 1943, directing the litigant Shankareppa Srishailappa Kupati of Nerali village in Hukkeri taluk of Belgaum district, to appear before the court on September 6, 1943. The Deputy Registrar of the High Court issued the summons on August 12, 1943.

Totiger told Deccan Herald that he would be sending this important document to M Ramakrishna, the chief of the Karnataka-Maharashtra border row special consultative committee, to present it to the Supreme Court in connection with a petition filed by Maharashtra on the border dispute.