Kochi Apr 19 PTI Trial by media results in denigration of the justice delivery system and prejudicing mankind against the parties involved the Kerala High Court on Tuesday observed while restraining a news channel from publishing or broadcasting anything except orders of the trial court regarding the brother-in-law of actor Dileep while reporting about the actress assault case Justice Mohammed Nias C P said the interim direction would remain in effect for a period of three weeks from today The order came on a plea by Dileeps brother-in-law T N Suraj who has alleged that certain police officers were leaking out materials allegedly collected during investigation and including those from the in camera trial in the 2017 case and that the same was forming the basis for false and fabricated stories in the media The court in its interim order directed the police officers accused of leaking information about the case to file affidavits dealing with the said allegations The State Police Chief was directed to ensure that no information regarding the investigation of the 2017 actress assault case shall be leaked out to anyone by any of the investigating officers Suraj in his plea has also alleged that the news channel was fabricating more and more allegations against Dileep and him about matters which are pending investigation and are sub judice in the ongoing trial He has further claimed that the news channel was resorting to sensationalism publication broadcast of fabricated allegations against the accused persons and their associates Such reporting interferes with the administration of justice causes prejudice to the petitioner and damages his reputation and that of his close relatives Suraj has contended in his plea After perusing the news items telecast by the channel that were placed before the court it said if what was placed before it was true then it was nothing but gross interference in the due administration of justice The petitioners apprehension that the 6th respondent news channel will indulge in similar telecasts in future has sound basis As stated above since these reports interferesobstructs the due course of justice going by the principles culled out from the various decisions of the Apex Court the sixth respondent is to be prevented from telecastingpublishing the reports in the nature of contents revealed in the exhibits the high court said The court went on to say that media cannot usurp the jurisdiction of the courts which alone have the constitutional authority to decide the guiltinnocence of a person or decide on the content quality or the width of any right available to any citizenaccusedsuspect Half truths and misinformation cannot be the basis of publications or telecasts The media cannot be given the right to speculate on the outcome of the ongoing investigations or the court proceedings or criminal trials Publication of leaks from the investigation agencies and to level allegations against individuals based on such leaks are not protected by the freedom of press under Article 19 a of the Constitution the high court said It further said that reportstelecast have the effect of prejudicing mankind against the parties and the court before the case is heard clearly and therefore it interferes with the course of justice In a trial by the media which apart from adversely affecting the rights of an accused for a fair trial has immense power to influence public opinion A perception is created for or against the accused in the mind of the laymen So much so that when a Judge passes a verdict which may be totally against the laymans perception it causes him to distrust the integrity of the very legal system This loss of faith in the justice delivery system is aggravated when the judge not the judgment itself is subjected to media criticism Justice Nias said In such cases trial by media results in denigration of the justice delivery system which without doubt is the very foundation of the rule of law in any democratic set up the court added PTI HMP ROH ROH

Thiruvananthapuram Mar 20 PTI An all party meeting headed by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday decided that while political parties as well as religious and cultural organisations should not be denied the opportunity to campaign flags and advertisements in relation to their events should not obstruct traffic or pedestrians The all party meeting which was also attended by Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan state Law Minister P Rajeev and various other parties leaders was held in the wake of several orders of the Kerala High Court against putting up of flag poles on pavements and roadsides without permission by political and other organisations In the meeting all the parties were of the view that political parties as well as religious and cultural organizations should not be denied the opportunity to campaign or conduct their events while at the same time flags and advertisements should not be put up in public places in a manner that would obstruct vehicular and pedestrian traffic a release from the Chief Ministers Office CMO said It was decided that flag poles can be put up in private walls or compounds with the permission of the owners and without affecting traffic the release said In public areas like footpaths flag poles may be erected for conventions and festivals with the permission of the authorities concerned and without obstructing pedestrians right of way the parties decided in the meeting They also decided that it should be specified in advance as to how many days the flag poles would be present and when they would be removed after the event concludes the release said The parties directed the Advocate General to inform the High Court of the decisions taken in the meeting as the opinion of the public it said The high courts orders against installation of illegal flag poles came on a plea by a cooperative society which has alleged that a particular political party was illegally putting up flags and banners on its land On November 1 last year the court passed an interim order directing that no illegal flag poles or masts be put up in the state while the issue was being examined by it It had on November 15 last year given 10 days time for people to remove the illegal flag poles and on November 25 2021 it directed the government to invoke provisions of Land Conservancy Act against all flag masts numbering 42337 in the State Subsequently in December last year the court had directed all District Collectors in the state to take action under the Land Conservancy Act against the illegal flag masts PTI HMP ROH ROH

Thiruvananthapuram Feb 27 PTI Eighty-two Malayali students who were studying in Ukraine and left after the Russian invasion of that country arrived in Kerala by Sunday night Of the 82 56 arrived from Delhi via Chennai and Hyderabad and 26 from Mumbai and they landed at the Thiruvananthapuram Kochi and Calicut airports in the state a release from the Chief Ministers Office CMO said The students were received at the Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram airports by various state ministers and government officials the CMO release said After arriving in Kerala the students said they were relieved to be back but would be happy only if everyone they knew returned safely from Ukraine The state government had issued air tickets for Kerala students to travel from Delhi and Mumbai the release said PTI HMP ROH ROH

Kochi Feb 23 PTI The Kerala High Court on Wednesday quashed a non-bailable warrant issued in 2012 by a consumer forum for the arrest of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in a case of alleged non-payment of money deposited by an investor in the year 1986 with the Express MalayalamPLtd of which he was the chairman Justice P V Kunhikrishnan also quashed all proceedings in connection with enforcement of the consumer forums order of April 24 1996 holding Swamy liable to pay the investors money The high courts order came on Swamys plea challenging enforcement of the consumer forums 1996 order and the warrant for his arrest In his plea the BJP leader had contended that he was never heard by the forum and no notice was served upon in connection with the proceedings and therefore its order cannot be enforced upon him He had also contended that while the forums order said a lawyer had represented him there was no vakalath executed by him available with the forum according to the response he received under the Right to Information Act He had further said that the publication was wound up in 2003 on orders of the high court much before the warrants were issued and therefore the forums orders were unsustainable Besides that the plea for winding up of the publication was filed in the high court by a bank in 1994 before the plea was filed in the consumer forum in 1996 he had argued Therefore the consumer proceedings could not have been initiated without permission of the court where the liquidation proceedings were underway he had said The counsel appearing for the investor had contended that the plea was not maintainable as there was a provision for appeal before the state commission under the consumer disputes law The high court however rejected the contentions of the investor and said that the plea was filed and admitted in 2012 and now it was too late for the question of maintainability to be considered It further said that the perusal of the forums proceedings indicated that it was aware of the liquidation proceedings and therefore in such circumstances it erred in initiating the proceedings against Swamy The high court also said The petitioner Swamy was the former Minister of Law and Justice of the Union of India It is a well known fact that he is a politician and he was a Member of the Parliament also This court need not disbelieve the version of the petitioner that he has not received any notice from the consumer disputes redressal forum CDRF The court said that Swamy was definite that he never engaged a lawyer and as per the reply received under the Right to Information Act it was clear that a vakalatnama alleged to be executed by him was not available with CDRF If that is the case it can be presumed that Ext P3 1996 order is passed without giving an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner and it is an order passed behind his back Based on Ext P3 the warrant is issued against the petitioner the same is unsustainable Therefore the contentions of the petitioner are to be accepted and this writ petition is to be allowed the court said PTI HMP ROH ROH

Kochi Feb 23 PTI The Kerala High Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal against a single judge order upholding the re-appointment of Gopinath Ravindran as the Vice Chancellor VC of Kannur University A bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly rejected the plea moved by a member each from the varsitys Senate and Academic Council against the single judges order of December 15 last year Senior government pleader V Manu who appeared for the state in the matter confirmed dismissal of the appeal The judgment is yet to be made available The December 15 2021 order had come on the same petitioners plea seeking quashing of a November 23 2021 notification by which Ravindran was re-appointed as the VC While rejecting the plea the single judge had said that there was no violation of any statutory provision in the re-appointment of Ravindran as the VC The court in the December 15 2021 order had said that re-appointment was different from appointment and the procedure adopted for the latter need not be followed when re-appointing someone The petitioners had contended before the single judge that a person can hold office of VC only till the age of 60 years and Ravindran born on December 19 1960 was over age at the time of his second appointment The petitioners had also contended that after the expiry of the four year term of a VC there was no clause for extension and the only option was appointment The single judge had rejected the contentions PTI HMP ROH ROH

Thiruvananthapuram Feb 21 PTI Continuing with the downward trend in daily coronavirus cases Kerala on Monday recorded 4069 fresh infections which raised the total caseload to 6473059 in the state On Sunday 5427 people contracted the virus in the southern state Kerala on Monday also reported 128 deaths which raised the total fatalities to 64273 according to a government release Of the deaths 11 were reported in the last 24 hours 76 were those which occurred in the last few days but were not recorded due to late receipt of documents and 41 were designated as COVID-19 deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and the directions of the Supreme Court the release said With 11026 more people recovering from the virus since Sunday the total recoveries in the state reached 6349057 and the active cases dropped to 58932 the release said As many as 42700 samples were tested in the last 24 hours Among the 14 districts Ernakulam recorded the highest with 647 cases followed by Thiruvananthapuram 531 and Kottayam 414 the release said Of the new cases 32 were health workers 18 from outside the State and 3775 infected through contact with the source of it not being clear in 244 the release said There are currently 157090 people under surveillance in various districts of whom 153490 are in home or institutional quarantine and 3600 in hospitals the release said PTI HMP ROH ROH

Kochi Feb 21 PTI The Kerala High Court on Monday said there cannot be two sets of laws -- one for the powerful and one for the ordinary citizens -- after noting that the Left government was unable to prevent flag masts being put up without permission by political parties despite the courts orders against the same It must be borne in mind that every flag pole which is installed without permission is an illegality and cannot be disregarded just because it is done by powerful people or political parties That cannot be countenanced You would not allow an ordinary citizen to get away with it There cannot be two laws one for the powerful and one for the ordinary Justice Devan Ramachandran said The court said that it was worrying that the state government was not even able to assure that no new illegal flag poles would be set up in future It said that instead of supporting an initiative started by the high court the state government was doing nothing The court further said that the state had earlier sought three months time to come out with a policy to regulate setting up of flag poles and now it was seeking even more time for that When the executive asks for time from the judiciary there should be a sincerity attached to it and not just because you want to ask for time the court added The state represented by Additional Advocate General Ashok M Cherian and senior government pleader S Kannan said that though that government machinery was resolved to regulate flag poles and ensure no new ones come up without permission it needs time to ensure that all stakeholders are on board with that plan While granting time till March 28 the court reiterated that when the government seeks more time it should be with sincerity to bring in a regulation The court was hearing a plea by a cooperative society which has alleged that a particular political party was illegally putting up flags and banners on its land On November 1 last year the court passed an interim order directing that no illegal flag poles or masts be put up in the state while the issue was being examined by it It had on November 15 last year given 10 days time for people to remove the illegal flag poles and on November 25 2021 it directed the government to invoke provisions of Land Conservancy Act against all flag masts numbering 42337 in the State Subsequently in December last year the court had directed all District Collectors in the state to take action under the Land Conservancy Act against the illegal flag masts PTI HMP ROH ROH

Thiruvananthapuram Dec 30 PTI Kerala was ranked fifth in the country and first among southern states in the Good Governance Index GGI published by the central government Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Thursday The CM initially took to Twitter to announce the states achievement and later put up a detailed post about it on his Facebook page Kerala has been ranked 5th in the GoodGovernanceIndex made huge improvements in many areas including the ease of doing business and industrial growth and also ranked 1st among southern states This reflects the progress achieved during the last five years he tweeted Later in his Facebook post the CM said that Kerala which recorded significant progress in the commercial and industrial sectors increased its Ease of Doing Business Implementation score from 4482 to 8500 Except Punjab Kerala was the only state to improve its score in such a significant manner he added Vijayan also said that the states combined annual growth rate in the industrial sector increased from 100 in 2019 to 791 in 2021 Besides improving its Ease of Doing Business Implementation score the state also improved its scores in human resource development skills training and employment availability ratio he said and added that Kerala topped in the public health and environmental sectors The state also came second in the judiciary and public safety categories and third in the social welfare development category Vijayan noted that these achievements reflect the benefits of the changes made by the government to improve governance and make it more transparent and popular while the GGI ranking indicates that the changes were accelerating the states progress PTI HMP ROH ROH

Kochi Dec 26 PTI Fifty people were arrested in connection with the Christmas day violence in Kizhakkambalam area of Ernakulam district and produced before a magisterial court here police said on Monday On Saturday night Christmas day celebrations by migrant labourers from the north east part of India at Kizhakkambalam turned violent leading to several policemen being brutally assaulted and two police jeeps badly damaged with one set on fire Eight policemen including a Circle Inspector were injured in the violence and subsequently police lodged two cases -- one for the assault on the officers which also includes attempt to murder charges and the other for destruction of property -- and arrested 50 people in connection with the incident It had initially taken 150 people into custody on Sunday morning itself Rural SP K Karthik had said that two cases have been lodged in connection with the incident on December 25 night and the investigation was going on to identify all those involved in it and to collect evidence Visuals of the violence which went viral on social media showed a large group of people surrounding the police vehicles climbing on top of them pelting them with stones and then thrashing them with sticks leaving the vehicles in shambles Subsequently after the policemen retreated to safety the workers set fire to one of the vehicles Kitex Managing Director Sabu Jacob had later told the media over the phone that the workers had brutally assaulted the police officers including a Circle Inspector who had reached the spot to resolve the arguments between two groups of labourers on Saturday night He had said that initially the camp security and the supervisors tried to intervene and resolve the issue but they too were assaulted and thereafter the police were called However when the police arrived the uncontrollable workers brutally attacked the officers Jacob had further said that there was no criminal intent behind what happened and claimed that drugs were brought into the camp and some of the workers were probably under its influence leading to them becoming uncontrollable He had also said that his company would cooperate with the investigation PTI HMP ROH ROH

Kochi Dec 21 PTI The Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea seeking removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modis photograph from COVID-19 vaccination certificates and imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on the petitioner by terming the petition as frivolous being politically motivated and a publicity interest litigation Justice P V Kunhikrishnan directed the petitioner -- Peter Myaliparampil -- to deposit the cost in favour of the Kerala State Legal Services Authority KeLSA within six weeks The court said in case of failure to deposit the cost within the stipulated period KeLSA shall recover the amount from his assets by initiating revenue recovery proceedings against him It said the cost was being imposed to let people and the society know that frivolous pleas like this which waste judicial time will not be entertained by the court The court also said that the frivolous contentions by the petitioner objecting to the PMs photo and his morale boosting message on the vaccination certificate was not expected from a citizen of the country It also said that when there are thousands of criminal appeals bail pleas civil suits and matrimonial cases pending in the courts frivolous petitions like the instant one waste judicial time The court had previously observed what was wrong in Covid-19 vaccination certificates carrying the photograph of the Prime Minister when he was elected to power by the people of the country The court had also remarked They may not be proud of their PMs we are proud of our PM and had asked the petitioner -- why are you ashamed of the Prime Minister He came to power through the mandate of the peoplewe may have different political views but he is still our PM The petitioner had contended that the certificate was a private space with personal details on record and therefore it was inappropriate to intrude into the privacy of an individual He had contended that adding the Prime Ministers photo to the certificate was an intrusion into an individuals private space The petitioner a senior citizen had contended in his plea that the Prime Ministers photo on his vaccination certificate was a violation of fundamental rights PTI HMP ROH ROH