SRINGERI NELAMAU SAMSTHANAM HEROR Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A question of considerable public importance arises for consideration in this writ petition. The question precisely is whether the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950 is in its application to what are known as Bombay Karnataka Areas of the present day State of Karnataka unconstitutional being discriminatory hence offensive to Article 14. In order to correctly appreciate the rival contentions urged at the Bar, it is necessary to briefly trace the historical background, in which the impugned enactment continues in its extra territorial application beyond the limits of the erstwhile State of Bombay now the State of Maharashtra.

(2.) CONSEQUENT upon the enactment of the States reorganisation Act, State of Mysore-now the State of Karnataka was carved out as an independent administrative unit comprising the following:

(3.) THE reorganisation of the States and rearrangement of the administrative units were aimed at making such units linguistically homogeneous. In the process of reorganisation, regions which were governed by distinct laws were amalgamated to constitute the States in their present territorial configuration with the result that such amalgamated areas comprising the states brought with them distinctly different laws, application whereof was continued by the Parliament enacting Section 119 of the States Reorganisation Act. The object underlying that provision, was to effectuate a quick transition without wasting time in any attempt to secure uniformity of laws which would have inevitably delayed the process of reorganisation. Section 119 was to provide for the interregnum between the reorganisation of the States and the time by which the legislature of such States suitably amended, altered or modified such laws to make them uniform. The laws applicable to the regions that were merged in the new units were with that limited object in view continued on the grounds of necessity and expediency.