THE Miss World contestants went about their business in the garden city without an apparent hitch, flashing smiles as big as their ambitions as flashbulbs popped and the paparazzi clicked away for posterity. But the legal tangles that threatened to send the final event of the beauty pageant into a disastrous tailspin refused to go away.
Agitation was transformed into litigation as the Karnataka High Court last week heard four public interest petitions against the pageant, filed jointly by the Karnataka Mahila Jagaran and BJP MLA Pramila Nesargi. The four petitions appealed for preventing the Karnataka government from assisting the pageant; preventing unauthorised use of the Chinnaswamy stadium for non-cricketing purposes; preventing the serving of alcohol (champagne) during the finals as it is a violation of the Excise Act; and preventing the use of loudspeakers after 10 pm during the finals as it is a violation of the Police Act.
While the Karnataka State Cricket Association and the state government succeeded in...
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