K'taka govt fixes around Rs 60 lakh as fee per day for legal team fighting border row case in SC
Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka government has fixed a professional fee of Rs 59.9 lakh a day for the team of senior lawyers, including Mukul Rohatgi to fight the case pertaining to border row with Maharashtra in Supreme Court.
A Law department order said it has fixed the terms and conditions and professional fee to the legal team to represent Karnataka before the Supreme Court in an original suit (number 4/2004) filed by the government of Maharashtra against Karnataka on the border dispute.
As per the January 18 order, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi will be paid Rs 22 lakh per day for appearing before the apex court and Rs 5.5 lakh per day for conference and other works.
Another lawyer Shyam Divan will be paid Rs six lakh a day for appearing before the court, Rs 1.5 lakh per day for preparation of the case and other works and Rs 10 lakh for outstation visits per day. The government will bear the expenses on hotel facilities and business class air travel.
The Advocate General of Karnataka will be paid Rs three lakh a day for appearing in the SC, Rs 1.25 lakh per day for preparing cases and other works, Rs two lakh on outstation visits apart from bearing the ehotel and business class air travels.
The state government has also hired senior lawyer Uday Holla, a former advocate general of Karnataka, who will be paid Rs two lakh per day for appearing in the apex court, Rs 75,000 per day for preparation of the case, Rs 1.5 lakh per day for settlement of pleadings and other works, and Rs 1.5 lakh per day for outstation visits apart from hotel and travel expenses.
The boundary row had intensified late last year, with vehicles from either side being targeted, leaders from both the States weighing in, and pro-Kannada and Marathi activists being detained by police amid a tense atmosphere in Belagavi.
The border issue dates back to 1957 after the reorganisation of States on linguistic lines. Maharashtra laid claim to Belagavi, which was part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, as it has a sizeable Marathi-speaking population. It also laid claim to over 800 Marathi-speaking villages which are currently part of Karnataka.
Karnataka maintains the demarcation done on linguistic lines as per the States Reorganisation Act and the 1967 Mahajan Commission Report as final.
And, as an assertion that Belagavi is an integral part of the State, Karnataka has built the 'Suvarna Vidhana Soudha', modelled on the 'Vidhana Soudha' here.
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Cong takes swipe at PM over India not being part of US-led 'Pax Silica' grouping
New Delh (PTI) The Congress on Saturday said it is perhaps not very surprising that India is not part of a US-led strategic initiative to build a secure silicon supply chain, given the "sharp downturn" in the Trump-Modi ties, and asserted that it would have been to "our advantage if we had been part of this group".
Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the news of India not being part of the group comes after the PM had enthusiastically posted on social media about a telephone call with his "once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC".
In a lengthy post on X, Ramesh said, "According to some news reports, the US has excluded India from a nine-nation initiative it has launched to reduce Chinese control on high-tech supply chains. The agreement is called Pax Silica, clearly as a counter to Pax Sinica. The nations included (for the moment at least) are the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia."
"Given the sharp downturn in the Trump-Modi ties since May 10th, 2025, it is perhaps not very surprising that India has not been included. Undoubtedly, it would have been to our advantage if we had been part of this group."
"This news comes a day after the PM had enthusiastically posted on his telephone call with his once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC," the Congress leader asserted.
The new US-led strategic initiative, rooted in deep cooperation with trusted allies, has been launched to build a secure and innovation-driven silicon supply chain.
According to the US State Department, the initiative called 'Pax Silica' aims to reduce coercive dependencies, protect the materials and capabilities foundational to artificial intelligence (AI), and ensure aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale.
The initiative includes Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. With the exception of India, all other QUAD countries -- Japan, Australia and the US -- are part of the new initiative.
New Delhi will host the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 on February 19-20, focusing on the principles of 'People, Planet, and Progress'. The summit, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the France AI Action Summit, will be the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South.
Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump on Thursday discussed ways to sustain momentum in the bilateral economic partnership in a phone conversation amid signs of the two sides inching closer to firming up a much-awaited trade deal.
The phone call between the two leaders came on a day Indian and American negotiators concluded two-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement that is expected to provide relief to India from the Trump administration's whopping 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods.
In a social media post, Modi had described the conversation as "warm and engaging".
"We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the US will continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity," Modi had said without making any reference to trade ties.
