The Hindu : Front Page : Court directive to TDB secretary

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Friday, Jan 04, 2008
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Court directive to TDB secretary

Kochi: A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the Secretary, Travancore Devaswom Board, to file a list of matters that required immediate attention of the board.

The Bench of Justice P.R. Raman and Justice V.K. Mohanan also ordered the Secretary to file a list of matters pending before the board.

The court issued the directive when a petition seeking a direction to the board to convene regular meetings of the board came up before it for hearing. In their statements, board members P. Narayanan and P.K. Sumathikutty Amma had said that the board had not been meeting regularly. They alleged that board president C.K. Guptan did not convene meetings regularly. Mr. Narayanan said the Board could not meet regularly due to the refusal of Board president 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.

Ms. Sumathikutty Amma said 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.

Ban challenged

A writ petition was filed before the High Court challenging a recent Central government notification banning import of palm oil through all ports in the State.

The petition was filed by a Kozhikode-based firm, Parrison Private Limited. According to the petitioner, while the foreign trade policy itself did not prohibit import of items, the ban on import of palm oil in Kerala was illegal and unconstitutional. A writ petition challenging an earlier notification banning palm oil import thorough the Cochin port was pending before the court.

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