After its earlier opposition to the Centre's imposition of Hindi in Karnataka, the Kannada Development Authority (KDA) has now expressed its opposition to the central government's proposed centralised recruitment of district judges.
The KDA wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on the matter, reports The Times of India.
Writing two separate letters to the PM and the Law Minister, KDA chairperson SG Siddaramaiah argued that the proposal was against the common interests of the country.
Interpreting the Centre's proposal of holding a common centralised examination for recruiting district judges as another way of "forced imposition of alien Hindi culture," Siddaramaiah wrote:
"Even if the process assures the states to follow their own procedures as per their rules and reservation policies, the worst sufferers would be native languages, cultures and the people. The cost of such experiments is too pricey to appreciate."
Such a move was against the plurality of the country, the chairperson added.
The Supreme Court, in May, had sought the opinions of all the states in this regard. This was done after the central government brought to its notice, the impending requirement to fill vacancies in the subordinate judiciary.
Following this, the apex court had asked all the states to file its replies. While it is the state public service commissions or high courts concerned that conduct the examinations currently, the central government has proposed a centralised selection mechanism.
According to reports, the Karnataka state government had given its consent to the proposal, following which, KDA wrote to the state Law Minister asking to withdraw the consent.
Arguing that the centre's proposal did not honour the federal structure of the country, the KDA said that "considering the experience of Karnataka in national level competitive examinations conducted by the Institute of Banking and Personnel Selection (IBPS), poor and common people in the state were facing serious problem because of officers who did not know Kannada."