The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : HC Bench: Government accused of inaction

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 09, 2006

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

HC Bench: Government accused of inaction

Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former Speaker and Capital City Development Forum chairman M.Vijayakumar has accused the Government of failing to initiate steps to set up a Bench of the High Court in the capital.

Referring to a written reply of the Chief Minister to K. Mohan Kumar in the Assembly on Monday, Mr.Vijayakumar said it has become evident that the State Government has not taken any steps for setting up the bench and was fooling the public.

Mr.Vijayakumar said in a statement that the State Government was opposed to the proposal. The Government was trying to blame the Chief Justice of the High Court to escape public ire.

Clearance not mandatory

A clearance of the Chief Justice is not mandatory for setting up the bench. The Tamil Nadu and Karnataka Governments had only intimated the High Court Chief Justices before setting up the bench in Madurai and Gulbarga, Mr.Vijayakumar said.

Union Law Minister H.R. Bharadwaj had assured the late P.K. Vasudevan Nair and Varkala Radhakrishnan, MP, that if the State Government provided the infrastructure facilities, the bench can be set up within a month. They had intimated Chief Minister Oommen Chandy about the assurance, he said.

Resolution

The Assembly had unanimously passed a resolution for the bench, but the Government did not take any action for a year. In the wake of public protests, the resolution was forwarded to the President. The Government is bound to act on the resolution. After providing the infrastructure facilities, it should send a detailed report to the Centre, he said.

UDF MLAs criticised

Mr.Vijayakumar accused the United Democratic Front MLAs in the district on inaction. He asked them to declare their stance on the issue. The forum would protest against the Government inaction, he said.

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