Following a writ petition filed by the All Kerala Chemists and Druggists Association (AKCDA), the Kerala High Court has directed the department of registration, government of Kerala, to withdraw from taking any action to cancel the registered status of the trade body until a final court verdict comes out on the petition filed by it.

In the writ petition, the AKCDA has requested the court to allow some more time to file the yearly returns to the department as the association is now engaged in the procedures of organizational election which requires more than three months to complete. Hearing the arguments, the court directed the secretary of the registration department and the district registrar of Ernakulam to stop the departmental proceedings for the time being, pending final disposal of the writ petition.

The petition seeking an interim stay order from the high court was filed by a faction leader of AKCDA, Antony Tharian.

In December last year, the district registrar of Ernakulam had started proceedings to cancel the registration of the AKCDA due to failure of filing yearly returns and replies to the notices issued from his office to the AKCDA. The office had sent a notice to the association informing it that its registration would be removed from the Registry of the office because of various reasons including non-functioning of head office for the last several years. As a result, the DRO had stopped accepting any filings or returns or application for condonation of delay from the organization. This has forced the association to immediately approach the high court for an interim stay order.

According to sources in the district registrar office, the department has decided to initiate action against AKCDA due to many serious issues. The department got information that the trade organisation was facing vigilance case.

The faction feud among the leaders weakened the organisation and cases related to the leadership are still pending with the court. The court had earlier ordered not to use the name ‘AKCDA’ till the election of office-bearers is over. The process of election is reportedly going on according to the order of the court.

When contacted, district registrar KC Madhu said that his office has stopped initiating all departmental actions against AKCDA following the court order.