HC tells magistrate to vacate TDB’s rooms

The Kerala High Court has ordered the Additional District Magistrate, Sabarimala, to vacate the rooms of the Travancore Devaswom Board’s (TDB) administrative office-cum-guest house at Nilakkal.

The directive came on a petition filed by the TDB challenging the District Collector’s order taking over possession of the building for the functioning of the office of the Additional District Magistrate.

The TDB said that there were three rooms in the building. During the pilgrimage season, urgent board meetings were held in the building. The guest house was required for its essential activities. The board expressed it inability to allot rooms when the District Collector sought to spare space for the office of the Additional District Magistrate. Instead, the board offered to provide three rooms in its hotel complex, adjacent to the guest house. However, the District Collector issued an order taking over the the building invoking powers of the Disaster Management Act.

The court observed that the takeover order was issued by the Collector overstepping the powers under the district disaster management authority laws. The TDB, being at the helm of affairs of the management of the temple and allied functions, its primacy could not be overlooked.