A petition has been filed in the Kerala High Court seeking removal of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stating that his CPI(M)-led lDF Government has lost its right to remain in office in the context of an order issued last week by the same court which said that the Cabinet had lost collective responsibility.
The quo warranto writ filed by RS Sasikumar, a former Congress Syndicate member of the Kerala University, questioned the authority of CPI(M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan to continue as Chief Minister and of his Cabinet to remain in power even after the High Court had issued such an order.
While rejecting a petition submitted by NCP legislator Thomas Chandy, then Transport Minister, challenging a report from the Alappuzha District Collector against him, the High Court had said
on November 14 that his action of approaching the court on this proved that the Cabinet had lost its collective responsibility.
The court had lashed out at Chandy saying that the petition – challenging the District Collector’s report confirming encroachment of land and lake, land-filling of paddy fields and wetlands in violation of laws and rules and misuse of public funds by him – from a Minister challenging his own Government amounted to violation of Constitution.
Chandy, one of the only two NCP members in the Kerala Assembly, had resigned on November 15 as minister not on the basis of the court’s extremely critical observations but due to the pressures exerted on the Chief Minister by the CPI, second biggest lDF partner whose four Ministers boycotted that day’s Cabinet meeting in protest against Chandy’s participation in it.
The petitioner, who made references in the writ to Chandy’s petition against the District Collector’s report on his illegal acts and the CPI’s boycott of the Cabinet meeting of November 15, has pointed out that the Chief Minister and the Cabinet he is heading have lost the right to continue in the office in the context of the remarks of the court.
At the same time, Alleppey Ashraf, a filmmaker, has filed a petition in the High Court against the four CPI Ministers who had stayed away from the Cabinet meeting of November 15. He said the boycott of the Cabinet meeting by the CPI Ministers amounted to violation of Constitution and breach of the oath they had taken.
He said in the petition that Revenue Minister E Chandrasekharan, Food Minister P Thilothaman, Agriculture Minister VS Sunil Kumar and Forests Minister K Raju had failed in fulfilling their constitutional obligation by boycotting the Cabinet meeting. Therefore, the Chief Minister should not allow these Ministers to take crucial significant policy decisions, the petitioner said.