After the conclusion of arguments, the Company Law Board (CLB) today reserved its order on an application for a stay on the controversial editorial board changes approved for The Hindu daily.
The petition was filed by a group of 11 family members of Kasturi & Sons, the holding company, against the majority decision of the board of directors to remove N Ravi, editor, and Malini Parthasarathy from the editorial board.
The petition contended that instead of formulating a succession plan, which had been directed by the CLB order on December 22 last year, the board made a removal plan. On April 18, N Ram, editor-in-chief and publisher, with six other directors in the 12-member board, voted to appoint Siddharth Varadarajan (who heads the news bureau in Delhi) in place of Ravi. It was also decided that Ram would step down from his responsibilities, along with four others on the board.
The measure meant the removal of Ravi, Nirmala Lakshman, K Venugopaland Malini Parthasarathy, all cousins, from their editorial roles.
In March 2010, Ram and eight others allegedly tried to curtail the powers of N Murali, another sibling of Ram and the then managing director of The Hindu. The CLB set aside the decision by the board to remove Murali’s powers.
