Supreme Court judge C.T. Ravikumar recused himself from hearing the appeals against the discharge of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the SNC-Lavalin corruption case.
Separate appeals were filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and some of the accused, who were not discharged, in 2017. They have remained pending in the apex court. The appeals have seen repeated adjournments since January 2018.
On Monday, Justice Ravikumar, who is the associate judge accompanying Justice M.R. Shah on the Bench, said he had passed an order in the case during his tenure at the Kerala High Court.
The case would now be referred to the Chief Justice of India for constitution of a new Bench. Justice Shah is retiring in May. The case is likely to come up again after the court reopens in July following the summer vacations.
CBI cautioned
In an earlier hearing, the Bench had cautioned the CBI that it would need to bolster its appeal against Mr. Vijayan with “very strong arguments” as two courts — the trial court and the Kerala High Court — had already discharged him of any wrong-doing.
Mr. Vijayan was discharged as an accused by both the Special Court, CBI, in Thiruvananthapuram, and the Kerala High Court. The CBI had, in its appeal, contended that Mr. Vijayan should face trial in the case.
Case history
The corruption case concerns the loss of ₹86.25 crore in the Kerala State Electricity Board’s (KSEB) contract with SNC-Lavalin for the renovation and modernisation of Pallivasal, Sengulam, and Panniar hydroelectric projects in Idukki district in Kerala. Mr. Vijayan was the State’s Electricity Minister then.
The investigation agency said Mr. Vijayan had travelled to Canada as a “guest” of SNC-Lavalin in 1997. It was in Canada that he made the “crucial” decision to promote SNC-Lavalin, which was just a consultancy firm retained on fixed-rate basis, from consultants to suppliers, the agency said.
The CBI had argued that the decision of the Kerala High Court to discharge Mr. Vijayan was “not correct”. The High Court had also upheld the discharge of two former KSEB senior officers — K. Mohanachandran and A. Francis.
However, three other accused — M. Kasthuriranga Iyer, G. Rajasekharan Nair and R. Sivadasan — were asked to stand trial. Mr. Nair was then Member (Accounts) of the KSEB and Mr. Iyer was Chief Engineer (Generation) in the Board. They had appealed to the Supreme Court for parity of treatment.
