A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday made it clear that A. Padmakumar and K.P. Sankaradas, newly appointed president and member respectively of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), could function if they had already assumed charge.
The court passed the order on a writ petition challenging the ordinance removing Prayar Gopalakrishnan and member Ajay Tharayil from the board and reducing the term of the TDB from three to two years.
Govt stance
The court ordered that status quo be maintained with respect to the ordinance as on Wednesday. When the petition came up for hearing, the State government submitted that both the newly appointed persons had already taken charge.
In their petition, Mr. Gopalakrishnan and Mr. Tharayil, both appointed by the previous UDF government, said the ordinance was promulgated all of a sudden. The action of the government in not bringing an amendment for reducing the term in the Assembly was patently unconstitutional. It had abused its power. Besides, the promulgation of the ordinance on the eve of the Sabarimala season was ill-motivated.
Petitioners’ version
The petitioners said that they were entitled to hold office till their tenure was over. In fact, their tenure was fixed under Section 10 of the Travancore Cochin Hindu Religious Act. The petitioners pointed out that the Supreme Court had already held in the T.P. Senkumar’s case that the State government could not alter the tenure already fixed through an Act.
