Karnataka: CM Yediyurappa announces state-wide lockdown till March 31
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Monday night announced a lockdown from March 24 till month end in the entire state as seven new COVID-19 cases were reported, taking the tally in the state to 33.
The government earlier announced stricter measures in nine districts, including Bengaluru, where lockdown was declared on Sunday till March 31 to contain the spread of virus.
In a late night tweet, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said "after assessing the situation of covid-19, we have decided to lockdown not just 9 districts but the whole state of Karnataka starting tomorrow till March 31st.
I request all citizens to co-operate and please stay indoors."
In another tweet in Kannada, he said, the total lockdown was extended to the entire state "to control covid-19 infection which is spreading at dangerous level."
The government on Sunday announced shutdown of all commercial activities barring essential services in Bengaluru city, Bengaluru Rural, Mangaluru, Mysuru, Kalaburagi, Dharwad, Chikkaballapura, Kodagu and Belagavi till month end, while closing state borders and postponing board exams.
Orders were issued on Monday prohibiting gathering of more than five people in public places in these districts, stopping public and private transport services, and closing of government offices there.
"All gatherings of more than 5 persons shall be prohibited in public places except for purposes of containment of COVID-19 and statutory and regulatory functions," the state government said in an order signed by Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar.
It said all shops, commercial establishments, offices, workshops, godowns dealing shall close their operations subject to exceptions, while all industries and factories except those dealing with essential goods and services, food, medical equipment, drugs, fuel, agricultural inputs etc, shall remain closed.
"They (industries) are advised not to remove any worker on this account and advised to sanction paid leave on these days (till March 31) to the remaining workers," it added.
The government said all foreign returnees shall remain in strict home quarantine, and violation of home quarantine will entail penal action and shift to government quarantine.
The ongoing budget session of the Karnataka legislative assembly will be cut short, as Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri announced that it will be adjourned sine die on Tuesday, amid growing demand for it to be curtailed in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.
"ill date 33 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state which includes one death," the state health department said in a bulletin.
It said 31 positive patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable. The seven new positive cases confirmed on Monday include two from neighbouring Kerala, and five from Bengaluru.
The government in its order has said all passenger transport services including inter-state, inter-district and within the district operations of Road Transport Corporations and private operations shall be stopped in the nine districts.
"Plying of private vehicles shall be permitted only for procuring essential commodities and exceptions permitted," it said, adding that all Ola, Uber, taxis, autorickshaws and other hired services shall not be permitted for passenger transport except for procuring essential commodities and medical emergencies.
All government offices dealing with non-essential services as notified by government shall remain closed, the order said, as it also called for stopping of all prayer and festival gatherings in the nine districts.
Warning against violating the regulations, the order said those in violation will have to face the law under Epidemic Diseases Act, the Disaster Management Act, sections of IPC, among others.
The Health Department said a mammoth exercise of identifying overseas passenger who had landed in Kempegowda International Airport at Bengaluru before March 17, was taken by city civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and have applied home quarantine stamps on 5,000 people on Sunday.
Following the shutdown, the government said food will be provided free of cost through state run 'Indira Canteen' for the poor who depend on their daily wages for livelihood.
ಅಪಾಯಕಾರಿ ಮಟ್ಟದಲ್ಲಿ ಹರಡುತ್ತಿರುವ #ಕೋವಿಡ್_19 ಸೋಂಕನ್ನು ನಿಯಂತ್ರಿಸುವ ದೃಷ್ಟಿಯಿಂದ 9 ಜಿಲ್ಲೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಅನ್ವಯಿಸಿ 24 /03 /2020 ರಿಂದ 31 /03/2020 ರವರೆಗೆ ಹೊರಡಿಸಿದ್ದ ಸಂಪೂರ್ಣ ಲಾಕ್ ಡೌನ್ ಆದೇಶವನ್ನು
— CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) March 23, 2020
ರಾಜ್ಯಾದ್ಯಂತ ವಿಸ್ತರಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ .
ಸರ್ಕಾರದ ಈ ನಿರ್ಧಾರವನ್ನು ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ಕಟ್ಟುನಿಟ್ಟಾಗಿ ಪಾಲಿಸಲು ಕೋರಲಾಗಿದೆ.
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SC status lost after conversion from Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism to other religions: Supreme Court
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that no person professing a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism can be regarded as a member of a Scheduled Caste.
A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and NV Anjaria, upholding an order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, said that a person belonging to a Scheduled Caste community loses his SC status immediately and completely upon conversion to another religion.
"No statutory benefit, protection or reservation or entitlement under the Constitution or enactment of Parliament or state legislature can be claimed by or extended to any person who, by operation of clause 3, is not deemed to be a member of the Scheduled Caste.
"This bar is absolute and admits no exception. A person can't simultaneously profess and practice a religion other than the one specified in clause 3 and claim membership of the Scheduled Caste," the bench said.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court on April 30, 2025, held that once an individual converts to Christianity and actively professes and practices the faith, he cannot be regarded as a member of the Scheduled Caste community.
The high court has held that the caste system is alien to Christianity and is consequently barred from invoking the provisions of the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
It quashed charges filed by a complainant who had converted to Christianity and had invoked the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in a criminal case.
Aggrieved by the order, the man, a pastor, moved the apex court challenging the high court decision.
The top court noted that the Constitution (Scheduled Caste) Order, 1950, has made it clear that conversion to any religion not specified in Clause 3 of the 1950 order results in immediate loss of Schedule Caste status, regardless of birth, and this bar was "absolute".
"In the present case, it is not the case of the petitioner that he re-converted from Christianity to his original religion or has been accepted back into the folds of the Madiga community.
"On the contrary, the evidence establishes that the appellant continued to profess Christianity and has been functioning as a pastor for more than a decade, conducting regular Sunday prayers at the houses of the village," the court said.
The bench noted that at the time of the alleged incident, he was conducting prayer meetings at the house.
"These concurrent facts leave no room for doubt that he continued to remain a Christian on the date of the occurrence," the bench said on the facts of the case.
The pastor Chinthada Anand had filed a criminal case in 2021 against one Akkala Rami Reddy, invoking various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the SC/ST Act, alleging that a person had assaulted him while he was performing pastoral duties and conducting Sunday prayers in a village in Andhra Pradesh.
He claimed that he was subjected to multiple assaults by Rami Reddy, and he and his family were given death threats and abused in the name of their caste.
#BREAKING No person who professes a religion other than Hinduims, Sikhism or Buddhism shall not be a member of Scheduled caste. Conversion to any other religion results in loss of Scheduled caste status : Supreme Court https://t.co/fcapZvxbmX
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) March 24, 2026
