Plea in Supreme Court to control violence in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka

The Supreme Court has decided to hear the public interest writ petition on Thursday seeking its intervention to control large-scale violence in Karnataka and few incidents in Tamil Nadu.

The decision has been taken following the apex court’s decision on September 12, where it had modified its September 5 order and directed Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of water per day to Tamil Nadu till September 20.

Senior advocate Adish C. Agarwala made a “mention” before a Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice A.M. Kanwilkar for urgent listing and the CJI directed it to be heard on Thursday by a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra.

Petitioner P. Sivakumar said the failure on the part of the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to control fringe elements from destroying the public property has resulted in deprivation of right to life and movement as guaranteed under Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution. He said the Karnataka government was duty-bound to implement the orders of the apex court but certain fringe elements had prevented implementation and indulged in arson and violence resulting in loss of properties worth rupees hundreds of cores.

There was also attack on Tamils and their properties. Failure to obey the apex court orders will amount to contempt of court and the court should give a stern warning to Karnataka not to disobey the orders.

He further sought a direction to the respondents to Centre, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to take preventive and prohibitive measures to prevent escalation of violence after modification of the order of the supreme court on 12/09/2016 on the basis of the law settled by the supreme court in 2009. He also waned suitable directions for taking action on parties like Kannada Rakshana vedike, kannada chaluvali vatal Paksha of Karnataka and Tamizhaga vaazhvurimai katchi of Tamilnadu for inciting regional parochial sentiments and violence in Karnataka and Tamilnadu respectively and destroying private and public property.