Karnataka High Court stays Feb 4 Bengaluru bandh, Vatal calls off bandh

The bandh was called by Vatal Nagaraj of the Kannada Okkuta.

Karnataka High Court on Friday put a stay on Bengaluru bandh scheduled for February 4. Following the stay order, Kannada activist Vatal Nagaraj has withdrawn the Bengaluru bandh called on Sunday. Instead, he announced that the day would be observed as a "Black Day".

Bengaluru bandh was called by Vatal Nagaraj of the Kannada organisations to seek the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Mahadayi river water dispute.

Passing an interim order, a division bench of acting Chief Justice HG Ramesh and Justice PS Dinesh Kumar asked the Siddaramaiah government to take appropriate steps to prevent the breakdown of law and order on that date.

The court said as per the apex court's direction, no organisation or individual has right to give a call for bandh and directed the state government to adhere to the Supreme Court's guidelines in this regard.

PM Modi will be in the city on February 4 to participate in the concluding ceremony of Karnataka BJP's Parivarthana Yatra, a state-wide programme against the Congress government.

Karnataka BJP tweeted, "Bandh was any day going to fail but now with K'taka High Court placing a stay on the bandh, CM's desperate efforts to force a bandh on Kannadigas is now down the drain."

Bandh was any day going to fail but now with K'taka High Court placing a stay on the bandh, CM's desperate efforts to force a bandh on Kannadigas is now down the drain. #CMBehindBandh https://t.co/CesdPRnB6E #karnataka

— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) February 2, 2018

Last month, a state-wide bandh was observed by the outfits on the issue on January 25.

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