Overview

• Four petitions contesting the Karnataka government’s invite to author Banu Mushtaq as Mysuru Dasara inaugurator will be listed within four days after the High Court rejected an urgent hearing.
• Former MP Prathap Simha filed the first PIL, followed by petitions from H.S. Gourav, entrepreneur T. Girish Kumar, and Abhinava Bharat Party leader R. Sowmya.
• Petitioners argue the inauguration is integral to Hindu practice and must be performed by a Hindu dignitary in accordance with Agamic traditions.
• The state maintains Dasara is a secular ‘Nada Habba’ rather than a strictly religious event, and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has called the objections politically motivated.
• The 2025 Mysuru Dasara festivities are scheduled to begin on September 22, for which Mushtaq was invited as chief guest to perform the inauguration.