The Kerala High Court on Thursday passed an interim order directing the state government against taking further steps for the nomination of new directors for the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP Yogam).
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Syam Kumar V M, while considering a batch of appeals filed by Vellappally Natesan, his son Thushar Vellappally, and other SNDP directors challenging a single-judge Bench ruling that declared them disqualified from directorship and ordered their removal, ordered status quo to be maintained with respect to the nomination of directors for the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP Yogam). Effectively, the state has been directed not to take further steps for the nomination of new directors to replace Natesan and others, for now.
The interim direction was issued after the Division Bench was informed by the counsel for the appellants, as well as the State government’s counsel, that the government had not compiled a list of nominees for appointment as the new directors of SNDP Yogam.
The Kerala High Court on March12 ordered removal of Vellappally Natesan as the General Secretary of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP Yogam) after finding that the organisation failed to submit its financial statements within the stipulated time as per law.
The court also ruled that SNDP Yogam President MN Soman, Vice President Thushar Vellappally and Devaswom Secretary Arayakandi Santhosh are also not entitled to continue in their positions. The court has ordered that all four be removed from their posts and a new board of directors be formed in their place by conducting elections as per the law. The Court also directed the government to nominate directors to manage the administration of the SNDP meeting until the elections are completed.
A single bench of Justice TR Ravi while ordering the removal of the SNDP Yogam office-bearers from their posts observed that Section 164(2)(a) of the Companies Act disqualifies a person from being a director if financial statements or annual returns of a company are not filed for a continuous period of three years.The Court passed the order in a series of petitions, including one filed by noted writer professor late MK Sanu challenging the continuation of SNDP Yogam office bearers in their positions on the ground that financial filings had not been made for several years.