Let people know about changes in law: Kerala High Court

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has asked the state to give wide publicity to the laws enacted by the government to make the general public aware of them. A division bench observed: “The court would like to impress upon the government that issuance of gazette notification is of no avail unless the people know of it. The effective manner for that would be that the substance of the notification is published and given due publicity in various newspapers of wide circulation in the state. If this has not already been done, we expect the government to do so immediately.”

The court was considering a case related to the amendments brought to the Kerala Conservation of Paddy and Wet Land Rules, 2008. K.K. Rajipath Balakrishnan of Kannur had filed a plea before the court. The court had earlier asked the state to make sufficient changes and pursuant to this an ordinance was issued on May 30, 2017 bringing about amendments to the Kerala Conservation of Paddy and Wetland Rules, 2008.

The ordinance was produced before the court which issued the order after considering it. “The rules provide an opportunity to the public to raise objections with regard to entries included in the data bank. That having been done, it would go a long way in helping the citizens to correct the mistakes or get the mistakes corrected,” the court said.