Kerala HC quashes State Govt order legalising actor Mohanlal's possession of elephant tusks

Kochi (Kerala) [India], October 24 : Actor Mohanlal and the Kerala Government have faced a setback in the elephant tusk case.
The High Court of Kerala has quashed a government order that had legalised Mohanlal's possession of the elephant tusks. The court has also directed the government to issue a fresh notification in this regard.
The court observed that there were lapses in the government's procedures that legalised the possession of the tusks. It pointed out that the 2015 government notification had not been published in the Gazette, which constituted a procedural flaw. Due to this technical lapse, the High Court has cancelled the license permitting Mohanlal to keep the elephant tusks.
In August 2011, during a raid at actor Mohanlal's residence in Thevara, Ernakulam, the Income Tax Department discovered elephant tusks. At the time of the seizure, Mohanlal did not possess a valid license to keep them. Later, the government considered Mohanlal's application and issued him a possession certificate.
However, the court has now found that when the possession certificate was issued in 2015, the government failed to publish the related notification in the 2015 Gazette. The court found this to be a procedural lapse on the part of the government. It was observed that, due to this error, the license allowing Mohanlal to keep the tusks is legally invalid.