BELAGAVI: A writ petition filed by Maharashtra before Supreme Court demanding the merger of Belagavi and a few Marathi-dominated places in Karnataka into Maharashtra will come up for hearing on Monday. The bench consisting of Justices Khehar, Mishra and Gopal Gowda will hear the plea.
The bench, according to legal experts, will commence with the Karnataka’s plea to dismiss the petition of Maharashtra with an argument that border dispute does not come under the jurisdiction of the court and Parliament has the sole right to settle the dispute. Further hearing of the case will be decided after the Karnataka’s plea questioning Maharashtra’s petition, which will be taken up after the lunch break.
Maharashtra has been demanding the merger of Belagavi, Karwar, Nippani, Bidar, Bhalki and about 800 villages into Maharashtra since the states were formed on language basis in 1956. As commission reports were against it, Maharashtra has filed a writ petition under Constitutional Article 131 (2004) and filed a suit before the Supreme Court, under pressure from pro-Maharashtrians in Karnataka.
Though the case was filed 11 years ago, the matter was not taken up as Maharashtra had failed to provide suitable proof with its petition.