Karnataka government cannot ban MES, says Supreme Court advocate

With rising demand from pro-Kannada outfits to ban Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti, the state government is caught in the commotion as it does not have any power in this matter. According to KV Dhananjaya, Supreme Court Advocate, not just the MES, the government cannot ban any other outfits as the matter can only be taken up by the central government under the UAPA Act of 1967.

The state government can only refer to the central government with incriminating documents about a particular outfit for its ban. The central government can ban an organization if it finds the outfit as 'dangerous', involved in terrorism and other nefarious acts that may cause large-scale disturbance in the society.

As MES is also a politically recognized organization and also recognised by the Election Commission of India, there is no way MES can be banned.

MES activists on Friday had resorted to violence in parts of Belagavi and vandalized the statue of Sangolli Rayanna and also damaged government vehicles and shops belonging to Kannadigas in response to Kannada activist Sampath Kumar's action of defacing MES leader Deepak Dalvi for holding a parallel session in Belagavi.

To condemn the action of MES, pro-Kannada outfits assembled in Belagavi's Hirawadi toll gate and launched padayatra demanding a ban on MES.

The Belagavi district administration has clamped Section 144 and there was heavy police deployment to prevent Kannada activists from laying siege to Suvarna Soudha at Belagavi. Hundreds of activists were taken into preventive custody and released later.