The Lakshadweep administration, which has been facing widespread public protests on the islands over some of its policies, has mooted a proposal to shift its legal jurisdiction from the Kerala HC (High Court) to the Karnataka HC, officials said.
District Collector of Lakshadweep S Asker Ali, told ANI, “News about shifting of the jurisdiction from Kerala to Karnataka is baseless and is devoid of truth. There's no proposal of Lakshadweep Administration to shift its legal jurisdiction from Kerala HC to Karnataka HC.”
The clarification came after a PTI published a report indicating the same on June 20.
11 writ petitions have been moved before the Kerala HC against Patel and his ‘undemocratic’ regulations, which are being viewed as harmful for Lakshadweep’s ecology and culture. Patel took charge as administrator of the Union Territory in December 2020.
According to the administration, the COVID-19 situation on the island is under control, but, movement of people has been restricted to prevent the further spread of the virus.
The jurisdiction of a high court can be shifted only through an act of Parliament, according to the law.
“Parliament may by law constitute a high court for a Union Territory or declare any court in any such territory to be a high court for all or any of the purposes of this Constitution,” according to Article 241 of the Constitution.
Section 4 of the same article mentions that “nothing in this article derogates from the power of Parliament to extend or exclude the jurisdiction of a high court for a state to, or from, any Union Territory or part thereof”.
“The SLF is a non-violent people's movement which has been requesting the central leadership to change Patel with someone who can be people's administrator,” Lok Sabha member Mohammed Faizal P P said on June 20.
Legal experts from Lakshadweep said that Malayalam is the spoken as well as the written language both in Kerala and Lakshadweep, and, therefore, the process could be streamlined.
-- With PTI inputs
