On Sunday, the Press Trust of India reported that the Lakshadweep administration has mooted a proposal to move the Union Territory from th...
On Sunday, the Press Trust of India reported that the Lakshadweep administration has mooted a proposal to move the Union Territory from the jurisdiction of the Kerala High Court to that of the Karnataka High Court.
While Lakshadweep district collector S Askar Ali had denied such a plan, the news report comes at a time when several petitioners have moved the Kerala High Court against the so-called reforms that the Union Territory’s administrator Praful Khoda Patel has proposed for the group of islands.These proposals include the implementation of a Goondas Act, changes in land development and planning regulation, and a ban on beef and the cattle trade ban.
On Tuesday, the Kerala High Court stayed the decision of the Lakshadweep administration to remove chicken and meat from the menu of its mid-day meals scheme. It also stayed orders that shut several dairy farms in the Union Territory.
Given the context of the Kerala High Court’s intervention in these decisions of the administration, the news report that the Union Territory may want a change of High Court jurisdiction to Karnataka led to critical comments from several people on social media, despite the administration denying that such a proposal has been made.
The controversy also raises legal questions.
Can a High Court jurisdiction be changed so...
