Plea filed in Kerala HC to shift venue of Vijayan govt’s swearing-in ceremony

Thiruvananthapuram: With only a day left for the swearing-in ceremony of the second Left government, a political outfit has petitioned in the Kerala High Court seeking its intervention to shift the venue of the event to Raj Bhavan, in view of unprecedented COVID-19 situation in the state.

Democratic Party state president George Sebastian sent a letter to High Court Chief Justice seeking its direction to the authorities concerned to shift the venue from the central staidum here to Raj Bhavan, official residence of the Governor, and limit the number of participants to just 50.

He requested the court to consider the letter, sent through the Registrar General, as a petition being taken up on its own. The letter was sent to the Chief Justice as it was unable to file new cases in the High Court due to some disputes regarding e-filing, Sebastian said here in a statement.

He also said though he had sent a letter to the Governor, Chief Minister and Chief Secretary regarding this last week, there was no response, following which he had moved the court.

The swearing-inceremony of the new CPI(M)-led LDF government in Kerala, headed by Pinarayi Vijayan, is scheduled to be held on May 20 at the Central Stadium here. According to Vijayan, the ceremony would be held by adhering to COVID-19 protocol.

The function would be held in the presence of 500 invited guests at the stadium, which has the capacity to hold 50,000 people.

Besides 140 newly elected MLAs, 29 members of Parliament of the state, representatives of the judiciary and the media would be invited for the function. A government order said entry would be limited only to people having Covid negative results obtained within 48 hours or on production of final certificate of the vaccination.