Kerala seeks review of High Court order on Red Cross chief

Kochi: The state government on Thursday approached the Kerala High Court seeking to review the judgment quashing a government order removing the chairman of the Kerala chapter of the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS). The court had dissolved its executive committee and various district committees and appointed the respective district collectors as administrators of the society. The collectors of Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad, Kottayam, Alappuzha and Kollam district moved the court. A Division Bench of the High Court had upheld the order of a single judge on a petition filed by Sunil C. Cherian, former chairman and other office-bearers of the society.

The chairman, executive committee and district committees of the society were  removed for conducting an effective Crime Branch investigation, the state submitted. According to Sunil C. Cherian, the state government had no authority to meddle with the affairs of branches of the society under the Indian Red Cross Society Act. In the review petition, the state government submitted that it had ordered a Crime Branch probe on the basis of the recommendation of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau.     Quashing the government order in its entirety will affect the Crime Branch probe. The police powers of the state being independent of the statutory provisions of Indian Red Cross Act and the State Rules, any offence committed could be inquired into by the state, the plea said.