Hearing begins over Kurien's chairmanship

Joint Charity Commissioner B P Hadia, after hearing counsels of the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) and four IRMA board members for close to six hours on Monday, adjourned the hearing and has called for the next hearing of the court on Tuesday.

The hearing for the petition filed by IRMA board members B M Vyas, who is also a managing director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), M N Vyas, M M Bhatt and Rahul Shrivastav started on Monday.

The IRMA board members had filed a petition in the court of Hadia following the partial approval by the assistant charity commissioner Bakula Waghela to the changed report that stopped Varghese Kurien from continuing as the chairman of IRMA for an indefinite term.

Earlier at Anand, Waghela had not approved the changed report entirely stating that some of the terms of the changes are not coherent with the spirit of democracy.

During the argument the plaintiff urged the court to cancel the disapproval by Waghela and allow Kurien to remain in the post of chairman as long as he wishes. The plaintiff also urged to cancel the proposed board meet scheduled on April 1 to discuss and approve the implications of Waghela's decision.

The plaintiff argued that term of the some of the board members had ended before the last meeting held on February 28, and hence the business conducted in the last meet should not be taken into consideration.

The defenders will present their arguments on Tuesday at Vadodara. The director and member secretary of IRMA K Prathap Reddy was present with the counsel.

Kurien had proposed to form an examination committee against board member Reddy in the last meeting that is being now called illegal by him.