Check-dam: status quo order extended

KOCHI: A Green Bench of the Kerala High Court on Friday extended by one month the status quo ordered with respect to the two check- dams built by Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Company on its Letchmi and Chanduvurrai estates. The Bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice P.R. Raman and Justice C.N. Ramachandran Nair, also adjourned by two weeks the hearing on the writ petitions filed by the company challenging the show-cause notices asking it to demolish the check-dams. Earlier, a single judge had referred the writ petitions to the Green Bench. The company had contended that the District Collector did not have any power to issue the notices. Acting on another petition of the company, the Bench directed the government to consider and pass orders on an application seeking to construct latrines for the houses occupied by its employees. The orders should be passed after conducting due inspection at the site.