HC issues notice to Kerala Law Minister

Kochi, Jun 25 (UNI) The Kerala High Court today issued notice to State Law Minister M Vijayakumar on a petition, seeking to issue a writ of quo warranto and declare that he was not qualified to hold a ministerial post.

The petitioner, Kalarkode Venugopalan Nair, a native of Alappuzha district, alleged in the petition that the Minister by visiting people protesting for a High Court bench in Thiruvananthapuram, had violated the oath of office.

The petitioner contended that there were Supreme Court and High Court judgements on the matter.

The action of the Minister was also against the court as he had stated while addressing the protestors that ''resolutions passed by the people are more valuable than that of the High Court'', the petition said.

The petitioner also prayed to declare the strike for the High Court bench in Thiruvananthapuram as illegal.

A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justice A K Basheer, directed notices to be served on 'Samara Samithi' President C K Sitaram, Samithi leader and parliamentarian Varkala Radhakrishnan, women's wing leader B Nirmalakumari, the State Government and the Director General of Police, before considering the petition for admission.

UNI XR MA SLD RAI1955