The Hindu : Kerala News : Takeover of castle challenged

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Takeover of castle challenged

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: M Far Hotels has challenged in the High Court the Government order for taking over the Halcyon Castle at Kovalam on grounds of its historical importance.

In a writ petition filed on Tuesday, the hotel group contended that the Government had no power to take over the Castle. It had been taken over on the false assumption that the Regent Maharani Sethulakshmibai established the Castle. It is just a guesthouse. Therefore, the castle could not be described a historical site.

The petitioner alleged that it had been singled out in this regard. As many as 3,269 sites of historical importance have been identified and the Government has not taken any step to declare them as ancient monuments. So the order is discriminatory. Besides, the Government lacks legislative competence. The order was promulgated following a High Court verdict quashing an earlier takeover order.

The petitioner pointed out that the new order was violative of earlier High Court directions. The Government action had also violated the principles of natural justice.

B.Ed. seats

Justice K. Balakrishnan Nair has dismissed a writ petition challenging the Government order for centralised allocation of merit seats for the B.Ed. courses in government, aided and unaided colleges on the basis of marks in the qualifying examination.

In the writ petition, the Kerala Private College Management Association and another college questioned the order on grounds of violating the constitutional rights guaranteed to minorities to run colleges.

When the petition came up, the Government Pleader, George Mecheril, submitted that the Government had decided to allocate seats on the basis of merit in the light of an earlier High Court directive. He also submitted that it was due to lack of time that the Commissioner for Entrance Examination could not conduct an entrance examination. According to him, entrance examination will be conducted in the academic year 2006-07.

Justice Pius Kuriakose on Tuesday directed the Director, Higher Education, to report to the Public Service Commission in one month the vacancies for direct recruitment in the posts of Government Higher Secondary School Teachers (Senior) in Biology, Chemistry and History.

The court also directed the Director not to engage guest lectures in the three subjects in the schools and not to make appointments by transfer. The order came on a writ petition filed by T. Vinod Kumar and others. The government stand was that vacancies that arose after the introduction of special rules need be considered for ascertaining the number of vacancies. The petitioners said that vacancies should be assessed with reference to the total cadre strength of the posts.

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