A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Thursday sought the response of the State government to the Sabarimala Special Commissioner's report which stressed the need for strengthening the vigilance wing of the Travancore Devaswom Board.
A Bench comprising Justice Anil K. Narendran and Justice P .G. Ajithkumar passed the directive in a suo motu case initiated in the wake of a media report that there was a move to disband the vigilance wing after it found irregularities in the construction of toilets at Sabarimala and also in the food bills submitted by the the Sabarimala guest house authorities.
The report
In a report, the Sabarimala Special Commissioner said that as the vigilance wing of the TDB was conducting probes into the allegations of malpractices and irregularities about various activities of board officials, the board had recommended the government to extend the period of deputation of two sub-inspectors and civil police officers for one more year.
In fact the State Police Chief did not object to the same. However, the State government had extended their deputation period only till January 20, 2022, for no obvious reasons.
The report said that as of now there was only one sub-inspector on deputation in the vigilance wing. Consequently the vigilance wing was now weak. The Special Commissioner also suggested that the the vigilance wing should be strengthened.
The court said that there was "absolutely no justification" for restricting the deputation period of the officers of the wing to January 20, 2022 when even the State's Police chief had no objection to the same.
