A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday refused to stay the proceedings initiated by the Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in connection with the implementation of an airport project at Aranmula in Pathanamthitta district. The NGT had restrained KGS Aranmula Airport Limited from executing the project on an appeal filed by the Aranmula Heritage Village Action Council. The Bench comprising Justice T. R. Ramachandran Nair and Justice K. Abraham Mathew issued the order when a petition seeking either to stay a suo motu proceeding initiated by the High Court till the appeals pending before the tribunal were disposed of or stay all further proceedings in the tribunal on the appeal. When the petition was taken up, Advocate General K.P Dandapani submitted that since the matter was seized of by the tribunal, it was only proper that until the proceedings initiated on the basis of the report of the Ombudsman for Travancore and Cochin Devaswom Board was disposed of, proceedings in the tribunal could be stayed. The Bench adjourned the hearing of the case to February 10.
Suryanelli caseA Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday adjourned by two months the hearing on a review petition filed by the victim in the Suryanelli case seeking to recall a High Court verdict discharging Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien from the case.
The Bench comprising Justice V.K. Mohanan and Justice B. Kemal Pasha , while posting the case to the first week of April for hearing, observed that a larger bench of the Supreme Court was considering an identical legal question of the maintainability of a review petition after a special leave petition was disposed of by the Supreme Court.
