Panel formed to consider Kerala HC bench: Tharoor

Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor Tuesday hailed the decision of the Kerala High Court to constitute a panel to study the feasibility of setting up a bench of the court in the state capital.

Tharoor, an MP from Thiruvananthapuram, told reporters here that the registrar-general of the Kochi-based high court informed him about the decision Chief Justice Manjula Chellur to issue the order constituting the committee to consider the request to set up a bench here.

"This was a follow-up to the various discussions held by me with the chief justice on the issue of the setting up of the bench here," said Tharoor.

The committee will be headed by Justice K.M. Joseph, the senior-most judge of the high court, and include Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan, Justice K.T. Sankaran, Justice S. Siri Jagan and Justice T.R. Ramachandran Nair.

"I took up this issue speaking to three successive chief justices of Kerala and four successive union law and justice ministers. The end of this vexatious impasse, agitating the citizens of the capital city and the southern districts for decades, is now near," said Tharoor.