BELAGAVI
In what could be a huge boost to Karnataka over its claim to Belagavi and other border areas, vital documents have been recovered by Karnataka to strengthen its case in the long-standing border dispute with Maharashtra.
Contrary to claims made by Maharashtra government in the Supreme Court that Belagavi has traditionally been an integral part of Maharashtra, the Karnataka government has recovered seven 155-year-old documents to show that the language used by all civil courts in Belagavi was Kannada.
From 1864 and 1879, the documents show that most of the courts orders, appeals and verdicts were made in Kannada in Belagavi city.
In the last few months, the government recovered many vital historic documents from the region to show that Belagavi has been an integral part of Karnataka.
A team of advocates that recovered the seven court documents ranging from 1864 and 1879 has handed them over to the Karnataka government.
According to State Advocates Literary Forum President, Ravindra Totiger, who handed over documents to the government, the documents will prove a vital piece of information to lawyers of Karnataka.
“Even the orders and verdicts made by Belagavi district court in the recovered documents has been in Kannada language,” said Totiger, showing copies of the documents which also had numbers written in Kannada.
“No other language other than Kannada was used by the local administration during 1864 and the years that followed, if the documents are to be believed,” he added.
Recently, stamp papers released by then Bombay government in Belagavi were also found in Kannada language. The stamp papers were entirely composed in Kannada, while the other languages used in those days were English, Hindi and Urdu.
Incidentally, the records have been found a day after Maharashtra government appointed its Cooperative Minister Chandrakant Patil as Minister in-charge of all issues related to the boundary dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra.
His appointment has been made to expedite the case and also to speed up the process of collecting pro-Marathi and pro-Maharashtra historic documents from Belagavi region.
Sources said that the Karnataka government will also hand over a file of documents to the Supreme Court to make the case of Karnataka state stronger in court.
