Baseless: Lakshadweep Admin Denies Shifting of Legal Jurisdiction

Praful Khoda Patel was appointed as the administrator of Lakshadweep on 5 December 2020. 

(Image: Altered by The Quint)

The Lakshadweep administration on Sunday, 20 June, denied reports about the shifting of legal jurisdiction from Kerala High Court to Karnataka High Court.

District Collector of Lakshadweep S Asker Ali, said, “News about shifting of 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 High Court to Karnataka High Court,” news agency ANI reported.

The clarification came after media reports claimed that the Lakshadweep administration had put forth a proposal to shift its legal jurisdiction from the Kerala High Court to the Karnataka High Court. News agency PTI had reported the same quoting officials.

Praful Khoda, the archipelago’s new administrator, has been facing a lot of criticism over his new regulations for the Union Territory which, among other laws, include a beef ban and the imposition of Goonda Act.

This proposal from the administration comes at a time when as many as 11 writ petitions have been moved before the Kerala High Court against Patel and his regulations which have been deemed to be “undemocratic” and potentially harmful for Lakshadweep’s ecology and culture.

The administration hasn’t clarified its reasoning behind this proposition yet, but the report quoted NCP PM Mohammed Faizal as saying that this move will be opposed “on the floor of the Parliament as well as the judiciary”.

“This was his (Patel) first attempt to shift the judicial jurisdiction from Kerala to Karnataka. Why was he so particular to transfer it…it’s totally a misappropriation of the post. The mother tongue of the people on these islands is Malayalam,” the MP told PTI.

Patel was given the charge of the Union Territory in December 2020 after the demise of the previous administrator.

On 29 May, the Kerala High Court refused to stay the implementation of the draft Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation (LDAR) 2021. Instead, it sought the Centre and Lakshadweep administration’s responses on the PIL.

Many protests have taken place in the island against Patel. Recently, a case of sedition was filed by the Lakshadweep Police against citizen, activist, and filmmaker Aisha Sultana for calling Patel a “bioweapon”.