Kerala IAS officer’s petition puts new TDB chief Jayakumar in the dock
Thiruvananthapuram: A petition filed by senior IAS officer Dr B. Ashok seeking the disqualification of Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president K. Jayakumar has triggered a major legal and administrative crisis for the newly appointed chief.
The Thiruvananthapuram Principal District Court has admitted the plea and issued notices to Jayakumar and senior government officials to appear on January 15, 2026, marking a decisive turn in an already contentious appointment.
The petition argues that Jayakumar — who continues to serve as Director of the Institute of Management in Government (IMG), a government institution — draws a government salary and is therefore legally barred from holding the post of TDB president under Section 7(iii) of the Travancore-Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act.
The provision explicitly prohibits government-salaried individuals from serving as members or president of the Devaswom Board.
If upheld, the ruling would leave Jayakumar with no option but to resign. Dr Ashok’s plea presents evidence that Jayakumar remained a government-salaried official at the time of his appointment, oath-taking, and thereafter, thereby making his assumption of office invalid.
It also challenges the argument that the Devaswom Board chairmanship can be treated as an additional government assignment.
Meanwhile, Jayakumar has said he intends to resign from IMG soon, stressing that it is an autonomous body and asserting that he is not drawing any salary from the Devaswom Board.
The controversy comes at a time when Jayakumar’s administration at Sabarimala is under strain.
His announcement that ‘Sadya’ would resume immediately after he assumed office on November 14 has not materialised.
With unclean toilets, unfinished preparations, and visible coordination gaps, neither government departments nor Devaswom staff appear aligned with his directives.
Jayakumar has been a favourite of successive state governments in the state, and soon after retiring as Chief Secretary in 2012, he was appointed as the founding Vice Chancellor of the Malayalam University.
As legal and administrative pressures converge, the court’s forthcoming decision is set to determine Jayakumar’s future and expose whether statutory norms were sidestepped in his appointment.
