After a legal battle that went on for years, the Kozhikode District Library Council on Tuesday took over the Public Library and Research Centre at Mananchira.
The takeover followed a meeting called by District Collector U.V. Jose. The meeting was attended by representatives of the library council and the librarian of the public library.
The library at Mananchira had been functioning as the District Central Library since 1952 when it was taken over by the Local Library Authority. It was in the early 1990s that the district administration took measures to reconstruct the library building.
Then District Collector Amitabh Kant was entrusted with the reconstruction of the building. The State government had passed an order to temporarily relocate the central library and to hand over the new building to it once the construction was over. However, before the completion of the construction, the Department of Higher Education entrusted the management of the library to a committee on the Collector’s recommendation. The society started functioning as the Public Library and Research Centre in the new building in 1994.
On the other hand, the employees of the District Central Library, District Library Council (which replaced the Local Library Authority), and the State Library Council contested the decision at the Kerala High Court, and the case has been going on ever since.
When the properties of the Local Library Authority were handed over to the District Library Council in accordance with a Government Order, the Public Library at Mananchira and the land were excluded owing to the case pending in the High Court.
HC order
However, the High Court in 2005 issued an order cancelling the GO handing over the library and building to the Public Library and Research Centre and directed the government to hand over the property to the District Library Council. But the order was never implemented.
There have been several attempts later to force the government to implement the order, but in vain. In 2011, a group led by writer M.T. Vasudevan Nair approached the High Court questioning the delay.
A meeting called by the District Collector on May 26 asked the Library Council to withdraw the complaint filed in the High Court, and, in return, the building and compound would be handed over to the council.
