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Devaswom Board told to clear issues

Kochi: A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court, on Thursday, expressed anxiety over the manner in which the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) functioned.

It directed the Board to consider and dispose of all pending matters in six months.

The Bench, comprising Justices P.R. Raman and V.K. Mohanan, said that “even in the matter of convening the Board meetings, let alone the decisions to be taken thereon, there is a sharp difference of opinion among the constituents of the Board, which is not a healthy trend, having due regard to the high office they occupy and the public duty cast on them in the matter of administration of the temples under it.”

The court said the Board was a repository of the confidence and trust of the people at large and such confidence could be established only by its effective functioning. The Bench expressed hope that the Board would rise to the occasion and act accordingly.

The Bench made these observations while disposing of a writ petition filed by Raveendran Pillai of Mavelikara, seeking a direction to the Board to meet regularly at least twice a week.

The Board members P. Narayanan and P.K Sumathikutty Amma had submitted that the meetings could not be held because the president C.K. Guptan refused to convene them. The Board used to meet twice a week before they assumed office on May 25, 2007.

The court observed that that though there was no statutory provision to fix any interval within which the meetings should be held, there was no excuse for not holding them.

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