Thiruvananthapuram: The Travancore Devaswom Board has time till November 13 to file its report in the Supreme Court on the Sabarimala issue with the court deciding to consider the 19 review petitions and the three writ petitions on the women’s entry in Sabarimala temple on that date.
As senior Congress leader and lawyer Abh-ishek Singhvi has declin-ed to represent the TDB in the Supreme Court in protest against its decision not to file a review petition, the board en-trusted Bina Madhavan, standing counsel in the Supreme Court, to find a replacement for him.
Mr. Singhvi had info-rmed TDB commissioner N. Vasu on Monday itself that he would have represented TDB if it had filed a review petition. The TDB was caught unawa-res by Mr. Singhvi's stand as he was representing it in the Supreme Court till now. The lawyers have told the TDB that they cannot file a report on the happenings at Saba-rimala without the Supr-eme Court posing a question. Mr K. P. Sankar-adas, TDB member, told DC that since the board is also a party to all the 19 review petitions and the three writ petitions, it will have to wait until November 13 to submit its report.
“The meeting held at TDB on Tuesday discuss-ed only the tender applications for the arrangements to be done for the Mandalam and Makara-vilakku season. Now we are awaiting legal advice on the report to be submitted before the Sup-reme Court,” said Mr Sankaradas. The Sabari-mala shrine will be ope-ned for Chithira Aatta Vishesham (erstwhile Sree Chithira Thirunal Maharaja’s birthday) on November 5 and will be closed the next day.
