Thiruvananthapuram: The conciliatory talks between the Travancore Devaswom Board and Pandalam Palace Coordination Committee, Sabarimala tantri family, Ayyappa Seva Sangham and Ayyappa Seva Samajam failed on Tuesday.
While the stakeholders demanded that the TDB should file a review petition on the Supreme Court verdict on women's entry immediately, they remained firm that a decision can be taken only on Oct 19 at the next board meeting.
The TDB president A. Padmakumar did not entirely rule out the option of filing a review petition. The stakeholders walked out as both sides remained firm in their stands.
P. G. Sasikumar Varma, president of the PPCC who addressed the media after close to three hours of talks, said they were aware that it's impossible to file the review petition on Tuesday.
“What we had demanded was that they should take steps to announce on Tuesday that they will file a petition. But they didn’t heed even though the temple is opening on Wednesday evening,” he said.
He expressed apprehension about things going out of control at Nilakkal, and he pleaded not to covert Sabarimala into a war zone.
“They have not accepted any of our demands. The TDB rejected our argument that the 1991 verdict of justice Paripo-ornan is still valid, and the discussion failed,” he added.
Later, TDB president A. Padmakumar informed that the board has not wholly declined the demand for the review petition.
“We informed them that we would take it up at the next board meeting on Friday. Then our lawyers will also be present. The Supreme Court will open after the holidays on Oct 22,” he said.
He also said that the board was ready to hold talks again to end the stalemate.
But a TDB source told DC that already they had reiterated that they would not be filing a review petition as there are already 27 before the SC.
