HC sets aside order barring media from exposing BJP candidate Tejasvi Surya’s tainted past

coastaldigest.com news network
April 12, 2019

Bengaluru, Apr 12: The Karnataka High Court on Friday set aside the temporary injunction passed by a sessions court in Bengaluru restraining media houses from publishing what Bengauru South BJP candidate Tejasvi Surya termed as "defamatory" content against him.

The direction came in response to a PIL filed by the Democratic Reforms Organisation, which had demanded that the high court dismiss the injunction, media reports said.

Surya had moved court and sought a ban on publication of allegedly defamatory statements against him. On March 29, the city civil and sessions court had directed the media from publishing anything false, malicious and derogatory against the young candidate.

The order barred 49 media organisations from publishing any such news against the 28-year old. The media houses included most English and Kannada newspapers and television news channels, and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.

The suit and the consequent order came in the context of, also mentioned by Surya in his prayer, certain #MeToo allegations on Twitter and their subsequent reports. While the Twitter user who levelled the allegation later deleted the tweets, she put out another statement seeking the issue be put to rest. The said tweets are now unavailable.

Overturning the gag order, the high court on Friday said the media could not be restrained from publishing content except that which is defamatory in nature. The court added that Surya can approach the Election Commission of India if he comes across defamatory content being published against him.

Surya’s nomination from the prestigious Bengaluru South Lok Sabha seat came as a surprise as Tejaswini Ananthkumar, the widow of Union minister Ananthkumar who passed away in November last year, was considered the front-runner. The minister had won six straight terms from Bengaluru South between 1996 and 2014.

Surya will contest against the Congress’s BK Hariprasad, a party veteran and Rajya Sabha MP who had lost the 1999 Lok Sabha elections to Ananthkumar by 65,000 votes.

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News Network
June 5,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 5: The Karnataka government has asked all its departments and authorities to avoid during all official transactions the nomenclature "Dalit" for members belonging to the Scheduled Castes.

"All the departments and authorities of government of Karnataka are requested that (use of name Dalit) for all official transactions, matters, dealings, certificates, among others," the official circular said.

The Constitutional term Scheduled Caste in English and its appropriate translation in other national languages should alone be used for denoting the persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes notified in the presidential orders issued under Article 341 of the Constitution, the circular said.

The circular issued on May 20 notes instructions issued by the Central government in 2018, with reference to the order of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, Gwalior Bench.

"That the Central government/state government and its functionaries would refrain from using the nomenclature "Dalit" for the members belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as the same does not find mentioned in the Constitution or any statute," the order had said.

Pointing out that the Central government had earlier issued instructions that the words "Harijan" and "Girijan" should not be used, the circular said accordingly the Karnataka government also had issued a Government Order in 2010.

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coastaldigest.com news network
April 23,2020

Mangaluru, Apr 23: An elderly woman who was tested positive for COVID-19 in Dakshina Kannada district today breathed her last.

The deceased is a 77-year-old woman from Bantwal taluk. 

She is said to be a close relative of the Bantwal woman who died of COVID-19 on April 19.

She was shifted to govt Wenlock Hospital which is now converted into COVID-19 hospital on April 22 from a private hospital.

Her throat swabs were sent for testing. Health and family welfare department earlier today confirmed that she was tested positive for coronavirus.

Within hours she breathed her last without responding to any treatment. 

So far 17 corona positive cases have been confirmed in the district including two deaths. Most of them have returned home after recovering.

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News Network
May 4,2020

Mangaluru, May 4: An engineering student has claimed to have received 600 threat calls in the past few days from unidentified people for starting fish business during the lockdown in Kavoor. 

According to Sakshath Shetty, resident of Kavoor, he started receiving threat calls from various people after he started selling fish during the lockdown. 

Police said they have been able to identify some of the numbers from where the threat calls were made and investigation is under way.

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