Kerala - Kochi   

Guptan not holding meets: members HIGH COURT ROUND-UP

Kochi: Even as the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) members complained before the High Court that no regular meetings of the board were being convened, the Board secretary took the stand that meetings could be convened only at the convenience of the Board president.

These submissions were made by Board members P. Narayanan and P.K Sumathikutty Amma and the Board secretary in three separate statements filed in response to a writ petition filed by Raveendran Pillai, president of the Kozhijaneloor Kshetra Kshema Samithi, Mavelikara. He had complained that the Board did not hold meetings regularly. As a result, requests made by various temple committees for renovation and other temple activities could not be taken up and approved.

In his statement, Mr. P. Narayanan said the Board could not meet regularly due to the refusal of Board president C.K. Guptan to convene the meetings. The new Board had assumed office on April 25, 2007. The Board had been meeting twice a week before the new members assumed office. However, it was now unable to take a decision on a large number of matters due to the refusal of the president to convene board meetings regularly.

Mr Narayanan pleaded that a directive be given to the president to convene meetings regularly or to the Board to hold the meeting with the two members if the president failed to convene meetings.

Ms. Sumathikutty Amma also said that no regular meeting had been convened for considering the grievances of various temple advisory committees. If regular meetings were held, the board could have interacted with the devotees and resolved their complaints. The board had held only two meetings since the new members took charge.

In fact, the two meetings were held not at the headquarters of the board. The Board member said she had given a note to the president seeking convening of a meeting. However, nothing had come of it. In his statement, the Board secretary said it was not obligatory on the part of the president to convene regular meetings in accordance with the wishes of the temple advisory committees.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice K.M. Joseph on Wednesday rejected an appeal filed by the State government against a single judge’s interim order restraining the government from taking further action on the basis of the Kerala Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Ordinance 2007.

The single judge had also ordered restoration of the managing committees of those district cooperative banks which were dissolved on the basis of the Ordinance. The Ordinance took away the voting rights of the members of non-credit and non-banking primary societies on the boards of the district cooperative banks. As a result of the Ordinance, the members of the non-credit and non-banking primary societies who were elected in that capacity to the managing committees of the cooperative banks would cease to hold office.

The single judge issued the interim order on a batch of writ petitions challenging the superseding of the District Cooperative Banks of Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha and Kottayam and appointing of the administrator to manage their affairs on the basis of the Ordinance.

In his reply affidavit filed before the High Court, T.P. Nandakumar, Editor, Crime, said that the affidavits of the Income Tax Department revealed that no meaningful inquiry had been conducted into the allegations of tax evasion levelled against Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac, Education Minister M.A. Baby and CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan. This was probably because of the influential position held by the persons concerned.

Mr. Nandakumar said the only inquiry done by the Income Tax Department was to take statements from the accused persons and accept them as correct without conducting inquiries independently.

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