Amid the intensifying border dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra over Belagavi, Karwar, and Nipani in North Karnataka, a resolution supporting a legal battle to resolve the border dispute between the two states was unanimously approved by both houses of the Maharashtra Assembly.?
The border dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra is rooted in the State Reorganisation Act of 1956, which reorganized states along linguistic lines. Maharashtra has claimed that 865 villages, including Belagavi, Karwar and Nippani, should be merged into the state since its creation on May 1, 1960.
The Mahajan Commission headed by Meher Chand Mahajan, the then-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was established by the Centre on October 25, 1966. It suggested that 247 places/villages, including Jath, Akkalkote, and Solapur, be included in Karnataka. It declared 264 villages and locations to be part of Maharashtra, including Nippani, Khanapur, and Nandagad.
Maharashtra rejected the commission's report. In 2004, the government of Maharashtra submitted a petition to the Supreme Court asserting its claim to villages in Karnataka that spoke Marathi. In the meantime, Karnataka named Belgaum Belagavi and made it the state's second capital.
Article 131 of the constitution gives the Supreme Court exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute:
However, a dispute that arises from a treaty, agreement, covenant, engagement, or another similar instrument that was signed or executed before the beginning of the Constitution or that specifies that the aforementioned jurisdiction does not apply to such a dispute is not subject to the jurisdiction.
Further, the President is authorized by Article 263 of the Constitution to convene an Inter-state Council to resolve disputes between states. The Council is intended to serve as a meeting place for the Center and the states.
The Sarkaria Commission recommended that the Council be established as a permanent body in 1988 which came into effect in 1990.
The Inter-state Council was reconstituted by the Centre in 2021, and ten Union Ministers are now permanent invitees to the body. The Council's standing committee has been reorganized with the Home Minister serving as its chairman.
Also, the Center serves as a facilitator or mediator in the process of attempting to resolve disputes between states with the cooperation of both parties. Parliament has the power to pass a law that alters state boundaries if disputes are resolved peacefully.
With the Centre acting as a facilitator or a neutral mediator, it is frequently attempted to resolve disputes between states with the cooperation of both parties.
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