A hasty and unexpected move by Kerala’s Congress-led UDF Government, which had suffered a severe setback on Saturday when senior Congress leader K Babu resigned as Excise Minister following a Vigilance court order against him in the bar bribery case, to save him met with defeat on Monday with the High Court rejecting its prayer for an urgent stay on the lower court verdict.
A High Court bench dismissed the petition filed by State Advocate General KP Dandapani seeking stay on the Saturday order of the Special Vigilance Court, Thrissur to register an FIR against Babu on the charge that he had taken bribe from bar owners saying the plea was ill-timed. Babu is accused of taking Rs10 crore as bribe from the bar owners.
It is believed that the prayer for stay was part of a Government strategy to create a situation where the Chief Minister might not have to accept Babu’s resignation so that it could avert a huge embarrassment during the run-up to the May Assembly polls. Babu was the second Minister to resign over the bar bribery scam in less than three months.
Stating that it could not accept the Government’s prayer, the bench said on Monday afternoon that there was nothing wrong legally in the Vigilance court’s action of issuing the order though there was an element of moral inappropriateness in it as it could have considered the fact that there was a similar case pending before the High Court.
The bench said that it was not intending to issue any urgent order by interfering in the Vigilance court order. The request could not be accepted without hearing the version of the person who had filed the PIl against Babu in the Thrissur court. If the Government had any complaint about the lower court verdict, it could seek appropriate legal remedies, the High Court said.
The Advocate General (AG) had raised the request for urgent stay on the Thrissur court’s order on Monday morning in a totally unexpected manner during proceedings on a petition seeking CBI probe against Babu, a close confidant of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, in the bar bribery case.
AG Dandapani alleged that the Vigilance court in Thrissur was playing politics and that this should be seen seriously. But the High Court bench said it could consider the plea in the afternoon if it was presented through a proper petition. It also reminded the Advocate General that it was not proper to raise such requests in the middle of another case.
In the petition seeking CBI probe against Babu, the court ordered issuance of notices to him and bar owner Biju Ramesh, the whistleblower in the bar bribery scam. It was Biju who charged Babu with taking Rs10-crore bribe. The bench also called for all the reports and orders concerning the bar bribery case.
Babu had handed over his resignation to the Chief Minister on Saturday immediately after the Thrissur court ordered registration of a case against him with a proper FIR. However, the Chief Minister had later said that though he had received Babu’s resignation, it would be accepted only after discussions with his colleagues.