Kerala   

Three months to decide on prosecution

Kochi: A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the State government to take a decision, if possible, within three months on an application filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking sanction for prosecuting former Electricity Minister and Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and two others in the SNC Lavalin corruption case.

The Bench of Acting Chief Justice J. B. Koshy and Justice P. Bhavadasan, disposing of two public interest writ petitions, said that if more time was required for taking a decision, the government could approach the court with proper explanations.

One petition, filed by T.P. Nandakumar, editor, Crime magazine, sought a direction to the government to grant sanction for prosecution immediately if the government thought that its sanction was required. The other petition sought to declare that no sanction was needed to prosecute the three.

The Bench said that it could not issue a direction to the government to grant sanction within a prescribed time limit. However, considering the public interest involved in the case, the court was of the view that it would be proper to direct the sanctioning authority to take a decision on the issue.

The court observed that there was no point in deciding the question whether sanction was necessary or not. It would be a “premature exercise of jurisdiction.” Besides, Advocate-General C.P. Sudhakara Prasad had submitted that as for prosecuting the former Minister, the Governor had sent the request for sanction to the Council of Ministers for its opinion. The government was considering the same.

The Bench said that the facts and the allegations levelled against the accused in the case would only be known to the sanctioning authority. Now that the entire matter was placed before the sanctioning authority it was for the authority to consider the matter. Whether sanction was necessary or not depended on the facts in the case.

Rejecting the plea for the dismissal of the petitions, the court said that political scams involving political leaders would go unnoticed unless a public-spirited party approached the court.

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