Govt files fresh suit on Maharashtra-Karnataka border row

The Maharashtra government has challenged the constitutional validity of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, and the Bombay Reorganisation Act 1960, which helped Karnataka get the state’s 800-odd villages. Maharashtra and Karnataka have been embroiled in a legal dispute over the transfer of these villages for many years now.

The Congress-NCP led government in its suit has said that the parliament had exercised its power arbitrarily and unreasonably by merging the villages with Karnataka, which is a state currently ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “The Union of India is expected to ensure fair play under the federal Constitution and establish harmony among the various constituent states and their inhabitants, but the reorganisation laws failed in this respect,” said the suit.

Challenging the merger of the 814 villages of Belgaum, Karwar, Bidar and Gulbarga districts of Karnataka, the suit states that the inhabitants of the disputed areas are being denied their fundamental right to live with dignity, without fear or oppression and the right to educate their children in their own language. There are 6.7 lakh Marathi-speaking people living in these Karnataka-held villages, states the suit.

Filing of the suit became an imperative for the Maharashtra government as the Centre, in a pending litigation between the two states, justified the transfer of Marathi-speaking villages to Karnataka, stating that language alone can’t be the sole criteria for demarcation of inter-state boundaries. The Union government also rejected Maharashtra’s claim that the Centre had in 1956 reorganised the areas arbitrarily. The Centre said that both, the Parliament and the Union government, had examined all relevant factors while considering the State Reorganisation Bill, 1956, and the Bombay Reorganisation Bill, 1960.