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High Court notice on move to close British Library

Special Correspondent

Kochi: The emotive issue of the prospective closure of the British Library in Thiruvananthapuram has reached the Kerala High Court, with a petitioner pleading against the loss of the “cultural landmark.”

Justice Antony Dominic on Monday issued notice to the Central and State governments and the Director-General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) on a writ petition filed against the closure move.

The petitioner, Mini Sreenivasan, a member of the library, stated that the British Council had started the library in 1964 along with such libraries in different cities. In 1971, all the libraries except the ones in the metropolitan cities were handed over to the ICCR, an autonomous body under the Ministry of External Affairs. Later, the libraries administrated by the British Council were named British Council libraries and those administered by the ICCR British libraries.

The library in Thiruvananthapuram had around 6,500 members and a collection of around 28,000 books used by a large number of students.

The petitioner said the Country Head of the British Council announced in Thiruvananthapuram the decision to close down the library by March 31, 2008. The move had provoked protests, leading to the formation of a Save British Library Forum.

The petitioner said the library management was going ahead with membership fee refunds and introduction of voluntary retirement schemes for the staff. There was a move to sell the books. If it was closed, Thiruvananthapuram would lose a cultural landmark, she stated.

The petitioner said the Central government had a constitutional duty to avert the closure. The public, who were the direct stakeholders, had the right to know the reasons for the closure. In spite of requests, the management had not provided any reason.

The management’s argument that the County Head of the British Council had the right to close down the library was not reasonable. The British Council could only close the British Council libraries administered by it and not the libraries administered by the ICCR since 1971. The petitioner said the closure decision was illegal.

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