Kerala High Court enquires about text book distribution

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Monday asked Kerala Books and Publication Society (KBPS) to inform it about the progress of text book distribution in the current academic year. Court asked KBPS to file an affidavit explaining the details of text book distribution.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice Anu Shivaraman issued the order on a plea filed by T. Balachandran of Kaloor seeking a directive to the government to ensure timely distribution of text books to the students and also to bring transparency of the accounts with respect to printing, stationery and distribution of books.

Petitioner submitted that text books are distributed to the school children only at the end of academic year. The state government has not taken any measures to avoid the inordinate delay that have been occurred for the last many academic years.

It was the government's duty to prevent the inordinate delay by taking adequate and effective measures. The petitioner also sought a directive to appoint a state level committee and district level committee for monitoring the timely completion of printing of text books.