By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Friday declined to stay operation of the Kerala government’s November 2008 notification informing the Trivandrum Golf Club (TGC) about the cancellation of its licence.
The vacation bench of Justice Deepak Verma and Justice K.S.Radhakrishnan, however, asked the state government to tell the “modalities” under which it would accommodate the existing members of the club after the licence’s cancellation.
The court will hear the case Tuesday (June 15).
As senior counsel Shyam Divan, appearing for the club, pressed for the stay of the government notice, Justice Verma said his plea could not be acceded to as the trial court and the high court had not granted this relief.
Justice Radhakrishnan said: “It is their (the state) property and they could take care of it”.
Divan told the apex court that the club was incurring losses for last several years. Besides the November 2008 notice to terminate the licence of the club, the state government recently issued another notice charging the club with irregularities.
Appearing for the Kerala government, senior counsel Jaideep Gupta said if the club was running into huge losses, what motivates its management to persist with its running.
He told the court that the golf course would remain as it is but its character would be transformed from an elitist institution to a common man’s institution.
This prompted Justice Verma to remark that “people are not able to afford two square meals and they will play golf?” He said that a golf stick alone costs thousands of rupees.
Gupta said that the state government was working on the lines of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) which has successfully set up people’s golf courses in which future professionals are being trained.
The 9-hole Trivandrum Golf Course spread over an area of 25 acres was established by the royal family of Travancore in 1850. On Nov 11, 1966, the course was handed over to Trivandrum Golf Club under licence for 99 years.
One of the provisions of the licence says that 30 years after the grant of licence, the state government could terminate it after giving two-year notice. The notice period ends November 2010.