The Kerala High Court on Monday criticised Chief Secretary V. Venu for not complying with its earlier directive to appear before it online in connection with a contempt of court case relating to the acquisition of land at Ambalamugal in Ernakulam and in another case seeking timely payment of pension to Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) retirees.
Justice Devan Ramachandran was considering the two contempt of court petitions. While one petition was filed by Raghu V.K. and 49 residents of Ambalamugal for not complying with the court’s directive to the Chief Secretary to hear the petitioners and find a solution to their problem, the KSRTC pensioners sought initiation of a contempt of court case for failing to honour the court directive to pay pensions in the first week of every month.
Keraleeyam responsibilities
Flaying the Chief Secretary who expressed his inability to appear before the court, it noted that the Chief Secretary said in his affidavit that he had pre-scheduled engagements throughout the week and therefore could not appear before the court. The Chief Secretary added that he was the general convener of the ongoing Keraleeyam programme and had been entrusted with multifarious tasks in this regard. “One really fails to understand how he would obtain time to see the stated prejudice faced by the petitioners in these circumstances,” the court observed while passing the order on the petition filed by Mr. Raghu and others.
Passing orders on the petition filed by the KSRTC pensioners, the court observed that any person would have empathy for the condition of the petitioners, but the Chief Secretary and Biju Prabhakar, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the KSRTC, appeared to have prioritised their other engagements over the plight of these hapless people. It was a tragic situation that the petitioners and their family were denied pension for more than three months. The pension of the current month was due on November 5. But the Chief Secretary and the CMD say that “they are not able to devote time because of their pre-existing engagements.”
Unsafe environment
According to the petition of Mr. Raghu and others, their land is sandwiched between the premises of the BPCL-KRL and the Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd. However, neither of them wants to acquire it, forcing the petitioners to live in an extremely unsafe environment. They sought a directive to the government to take essential steps to either acquire the land and rehabilitate them or grant them some benefits so that they can relocate themselves to another location.
The court said in spite of its specific directive, the Chief Secretary filed an affidavit seeking another three months to complete certain tests and to obtain reports from the expert committee in the case. The pathos of the people appeared to have escaped the attention of the authorities even when the court directed them to do so on a war footing.
The court directed the Chief Secretary and others to appear online on November 8.
