HC comes down on political parties

KOCHI: Kerala High Court today came down on political parties for not taking effective steps to protect the interest of the landless.

Justice S Sirijagan said,"when political parties do not do what they have to do for giving justice to people, by initiating amendment to legislation which are against the interest of people, when they were in a position to do the same and start agitations against the government when they are out of power amounts to hypocrisy and double talk."

"The same amounts to mocking the intelligence of people of the state", the judge said.

Though the judge did not mention any political party, he was apparently referring to the recent land rights campaign by CPI(M) asking the Congress led UDF government to take immediate steps to takeover excess land and distribute to landless in the state.

Likewise if the government in power does not take action to repeal a law which promotes violation of law, that also could amount to 'mockery' of law abiding citizens of the state, the judge observed.

The observations were made while interpreting sect 7 (3) of Kerala Land Reforms Act on a petition filed by K Sreedharan seeking benefit of the amended provision.