THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The State Government might have lost in the High Court on Thursday, but Megha's victory could be Finance Minister Thomas Isaac's, too. All the observations made by the High Court now were once Isaac's favourite debating points.
The Division Bench of the High Court has now declared Megha Distributors as the registered agent and promoter of Bhutan Lottery. But the Finance Minister had time and again stated that he had written to the Centre raising suspicions about Megha and was repeatedly informed that Megha was Bhutan's promoter. Isaac insisted he could do nothing more than that.
If Isaac then decided to challenge the status of Megha as Bhutan lottery promoter in the High Court, it was only to score a political point and not because he had sudden hopes of winning the suit. While the State submitted all relevant documents to disprove Megha's claims, the defendant produced a letter written by the Bhutan Government to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in which Megha was given as its promoter. The court ruled in Megha's favour. Once again, the preeminence of the Centre was emphasised.
The Opposition's big charge was that advance tax was collected from Megha even though they were found to indulge in illegal activities. The court has now said that the State's sanction was not necessary to appoint a promoter and added that only the Centre had the right to cancel the registration of a promoter for violating Section (4) of the Lotteries Act. Isaac, in an earlier press conference, had also said that the High Court in 2008 had specifically stated that a promoter requires only a single registration to promote any number of lotteries.
The Finance Minister had constantly maintained that the State was ''absurdly powerless'' to deal with other state lotteries. The High Court, clearly, had no doubts. The court said the State could give a recommendation to the Centre to take action against other state lottery promoters. Also, it cannot be competently argued that the State Government had failed to bring violations to the notice of the court. The High Court said the printing of lotteries in nonsecurity presses, a section (4) violation, was a matter of grave concern and left the issue to the consideration of the Centre.
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ലോട്ടറി വിഷയത്തില് ഡോ.തോമസ് ഐസക്കിന്റെ നിലപാടുകള്ക്ക് വിശ്വാസ്യതയേറുന്നുവെന്ന് ഇന്ത്യന് എക്സ്പ്രസ്.
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