SC seeks K'taka’s response on exemption granted to Kodavas,Jummas on having firearms without license
The Supreme Court bench headed by Justice NV Ramana on Tuesday referred the Karnataka High Court’s verdict on the exemption granted to the Kodava Community and Jumma tenure holders to carry and possess firearms without license.
According to a report published by Scroll.in, the Ministry of Home Affairs had exempted the Kodava community and Jumma tenure holders from some of the provisions of the Arms Act, 1995.
The Kodava community lives predominantly in the Coorg region of Karnataka while Jumma tenure holders are people belonging to agriculturist castes inheriting land tenure called jumma.
Taking into account the exemption granted to only one community, a retired Army officer Captain Chethan YK had filed a petition earlier in the Karnataka HC which was later moved to Supreme Court.
“The arms or ammunition carried or possessed by any person being Coorg by race and every Jumma tenure holder in Coorg and herein exempted whilst residing or travelling outside the district of Coorg shall not exceed one rifle with 100 rounds of ammunition for the same and one smooth bore breech or muzzle loading gun with 500 cartridges or the equivalent in leaden shot and gunpowder,” said the notification filed by Union Ministry of Home Affairs on 29 October 2019.
Earlier in September, the High Court bench comprising Justices Satish Chandra Sharma and SS Magadum had upheld the Union Ministry’s validation of the exemption.
However, challenging this, Chethan had argued that the government notification creates discrimination based on “caste/race and ancestral land tenure” in a plea to the Supreme Court.
He also pointed out that according to the Section 41 of Arms Act, exemption from getting an arms license can be granted only in “public interest”.
“However, no reasoning has been given in the notification on granting such exemption to the Kodava community,” the plea added.
A senior counsel appearing for the Kodava community argued that the exemption had been since the British ruled India.
The Supreme Court has now proceeded to seek Karnataka government’s response in this regard.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
