Karnataka HC asks BJP chief whip to apologize to IAS officer for Pak reference

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday asked the BJP chief whip in the Legislative Council N Ravi Kumar to tender an apology to Gulbarga Deputy Commissioner Fauzia Taranum, while disapproving of his comments targeting her with a Pakistan reference.

A vacation bench of Justice Suraj Govindaraj made verbal observations while hearing a petition from Ravi Kumar praying for the quashing of an FIR filed by the Kalaburagi police on Tuesday.

The BJP leader’s counsel told the court that the petitioner has already apologized to the IAS officer for his inadvertent comments suggesting that she “may have come from Pakistan.”


The Judge referred to the recent episode in Madhya Pradesh where the BJP minister Knwar Vijay Shah landed himself in a soup by passing comments on Col. Sofiya Qureshi, triggering widespread backlash.

The Judge said it was not enough if the petition has made the apology, the IAS officer must accept it and place it on record. The Court would consider the leader’s plea only after that, he said, while adjourning the case for next month.

Ravikumar had, while addressing a protest meeting in Kalaburagi, wondered if the deputy commissioner's office had lost independence as the deputy commissioner Taranum took orders from the minister Priyank Kharge. He further asked whether she was an IAS officer or someone who had come from Pakistan.

Ravikumar’s comments invited rebuke from the IAS Officers Association, which not only sought an apology from the BJP leader but also legal action from the government against him.