Sivagiri Mutt welcomes HC verdict against Natesan

T'puram: Sivagiri Mutt on Saturday welcomed the verdict of the high court that disqualified Vellappally Natesan from the post of general secretary of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam. Sivagiri Mutt head Swami Satchidananda said the court's decision brought relief to the followers of Sree Narayana Guru. He also expressed concern that several social gains achieved under the ideals of Sree Narayana Guru witnessed a regression in recent times. The seer also criticised political parties over the representation of backward communities. He alleged that the Congress was not allotting winnable constituencies to candidates from backward sections in assembly elections. He said, this was not the practice during the tenures of former chief ministers K Karunakaran and A K Antony. Instead, he claimed that constituencies with little chance of victory were offered to such communities.He alleged that the LDF ministry in Kerala had around 10 ministers belonging to a single community and lacked adequate representation from backward sections. The high court recently disqualified Natesan along with vice-president Thushar Vellappally and other board members of the Yogam. The action followed findings that the organization, registered under the Companies Act, failed to file annual returns for the past nine years.The court also directed the state govt to appoint temporary directors to manage the organization's administration. Members of the current governing body said they would soon move an appeal against the verdict. The order was issued by a single bench while hearing a petition seeking disqualification of the directors for failing to submit annual financial statements since 2014, in violation of the Companies Act.The law stipulates that company directors must file annual returns and may be disqualified if they fail to do so for three consecutive years. However, the SNDP Yogam office-bearers argued that the delay in filing the 2017 return was condoned by the govt after a penalty was paid. The petitioners contended that the waiver applied only to the company and not to the individuals responsible for the violation. Accepting this argument, the court disqualified Natesan, Thushar, Yogam president M N Soman, devaswom secretary Arayakkandi Santhosh and around 170 other members.