THRISSUR : K S Anirudhan of the SFI won the chairman post by a margin of three votes after recounting was held at Sree Kerala Varma College (SKVC) in Thrissur on Saturday as per the directive of the High Court. Of the total 1,878 votes polled in the college union election, Anirudhan won 892 and KSU candidate S Sreekuttan secured 889 votes.
The entire recounting process was recorded on camera as per the directive of the High Court. As the results were announced by Saturday evening, SFI workers celebrated the moment by carrying Anirudhan in their arms and raising slogans against the KSU.
Anirudhan said that KSU tried to take ‘cheap advantage’ of Sreekuttan being a visually challenged person. “The competition was not against Sreekuttan as an individual,” he said. The campus election at the Cochin Devaswom Board’s SKVC was held on November 1. At the end of the counting of votes, reports arrived indicating the victory of KSU candidate S Sreekuttan, a visually challenged student, by a margin of just one vote.
However, the SFI sought a recounting on the same day. After the recounting, Anirudhan emerged victorious by a margin of 11 votes. Following this, the KSU came up with an allegation that power was interrupted multiple times during the process and the recounting was not done transparently.
Sreekuttan then moved the High Court against the result citing irregularities in the recounting held on the day of the election. The outfit protested against Higher Education Minister R Bindu and Cochin Devaswom Board president M K Sudarshan alleging their involvement in making the election result favourable to the SFI. KSU state president Aloysius Xavier even launched a hunger strike against the result.
HC directive to 29 lawyers to appear in person on December 15
Kochi: The Kerala High Court has observed that the incident that happened in the court hall of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kottayam, and also in the veranda on the side of the court hall, wherein advocates shouted slogans and hurled abusive and derogatory words at the Judicial Officer, is of ‘grave’ and ‘serious’ nature. The court also directed Advocate K A Prasad, president of the Bar Association, Kottayam, and 28 other lawyers, who were facing contempt of court cases, to appear in person before the court at 2 pm on December 15.
Provide police protection for all district courts, judicial officers: HC
Kochi: Expressing concern over untoward incidents in various courts in the state, the Kerala High Court has directed the state police chief to provide adequate police protection on all court premises and to the officers of the district judiciary. “We cannot be in a slumber till an untoward incident occurs. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” said the Division Bench. The bench issued the order on a batch of petitions regarding security arrangements in the courts of the district judiciary in the state, and to the officers.