POINTERS OF THE DEVELOPMENT
The Lakshadweep administration has been facing widespread protests from the island people over some of its policies. There is a surge in the movement that has mooted a proposal to shift its legal jurisdiction from the Kerala High Court to the Karnataka High Court as per the newspaper reports.
The proposal was initiated by the administration after several litigations were moved before the Kerala High Court against the decisions taken by the islands’ new administrator Praful Khoda Patel. These decisions included revising standard operating procedures for Covid appropriate behaviour, the introduction of the “goonda act” and demolishing hutments of fishermen for the widening of roads.
Mr Patel, who is the administrator of Daman and Diu, was given the additional charge of the Union Territory of Lakshadweep in the first week of December last year when the former administrator Dineshwar Sharma died after a brief illness.
LAW FOR SHIFTING JURISDICTION
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”.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF LATELY
Previously, the Kerala High Court stayed an order of the Lakshadweep island administration, directing the Assistant Public Prosecutor (APP) to attend pending legal works of various government departments, instead of posting them in the courts there.
The high court granted the stay on a PIL by Mohammed Saleem, challenging the directive of an Additional District Magistrate in Lakshadweep to the APP posted in Andrott and Amini islands, to attend the legal works of several departments, including preparation of charge sheet to help the police. The petitioner alleged that the order was rampant abuse of power and an absolute failure of the Justice delivery system particularly in the Criminal Justice System of Lakshadweep.
This is all the more exasperating when it is learned that the respondent has not cared to ensure that an appropriate person is appointed in the post of Assistant Public Prosecutor at the Court of Amini Island in the interregnum, the petitioner said. Justice Vinod Chandran, who is the judge-in-charge of the island judicial administration, sought the view of the sub-judge in the islands on the matter.
A division bench comprising justices Vinod Chandran and M R Anitha said the sub-judge had informed that prosecutors had been deputed to the island in Kavaratti for the past two months and there have been no cases posted for trial after the reopening of the courts. Recording the views expressed by the sub-judge, the high court stayed the administration’s order.
