HC declines to grant interim stay on Tipu Jayanti

The Karnataka High Court on Friday refused to grant an interim order seeking stay of the Tipu Jayanti celebrations in Kodagu and other places while hearing a PIL challenging the celebrations.

A division bench, headed by Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, refused to grant the interim order seeking a stay on the circular dated November 2, 2018 notifying the Tipu Jayanti celebrations. The bench was hearing a PIL by Manjunath K P, a social worker.

The court also pulled up the petitioner for not challenging the government order dated November 8, 2016, while rejecting his representation.

The court also stated that it had earlier disposed of a similar petition and had stated in its order dated November 3, 2016 that whether Tippu Jayanti shall be celebrated or not is a policy matter of the government and had also granted liberty to the petitioner to make a representation to the chief secretary.

The petitioner contended that Tipu Sultan’s reign resulted in the conversion and killing of thousands of Kodavas as a retaliation to his defeat and there was large-scale communal violence when Tipu Jayanti was celebrated in 2015. Following this, he said he had given a representation to the state, asking it not to celebrate Tipu Jayanti in 2016.

He stated that he has filed a fresh petition seeking a new course of action.

The court expressed disappointment while orally observing that it is surprising that the petitioner has not challenged the government’s order rejecting his representation which is the logical course of action.The petitioner’s counsel then stated that he will challenge the order dated November 8, 2016 by moving an appropriate application.

The court adjourned the hearing for three weeks.