BENGALURU: The state government on Tuesday informed the Karnataka High Court that it had taken a policy decision to cancel the Tipu Jayanti celebrations in view of the communal clashes in Kodagu in the past. Making a submission, Advocate General Prabhuling K Navadgi told the court that the state government had no objections if the petitioners -- Tipu Sultan United Front, Tipu Rashtriya Seva Sangha and Bilal Ali Shah, a resident of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh -- celebrated Tipu Jayanti.
Navadgi made this submission before a division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S R Krishna Kumar during the hearing of a PIL. The petitioners had challenged the government notification of July 30 cancelling the celebrations.
Questioning the government’s decision without recording the reasons, that too four years after it had taken a decision to celebrate Tipu Jayanti in 2015, the court asked it to inform whether any representation was considered before issuing the July 30 notification. To a query by the court, Navadgi said that the Tipu Jayanti celebrations were held from 2015. Prior to that, there was no concept of such celebrations.