Mysore/Mysuru: Amid the raging controversy over the selection of International Booker Prize winner, Kannada writer Banu Mushtaq, to inaugurate Nada Habba Mysuru Dasara 2025, former Mysuru-Kodagu MP Prathap Simha has moved High Court (HC) against the State Government’s decision to select Banu Mushtaq.

In a writ petition filed today, Simha has made Karnataka Government, Department of Kannada and Culture, as respondent in the case.

In a 55-point observation made in 28 pages, Prathap Simha wants the Court to pass an order directing the respondent to not to proceed with the invitation extended to Banu Mushtaq as the chief guest for the upcoming Dasara festival or pass any such order in the interest of Justice and Equity.

Simha has stated, “Furthermore, the invitation of Banu Mushtaq as the chief guest has thus hurt the religious sentiments of the Hindu Religion wherein the invited chief guest in the past had made certain anti-Hindu and anti-Kannada comments.”