Supreme Court to hear Pinarayi Vijayan's plea against FIR order during Dussehra break

The Supreme Court is due to hear on Wednesday the pleas of former Keralam chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family against a High Court order that set off a vigilance case against them in the CMRL-Exalogic matter.

The hearing, during the court’s Dussehra break, follows Chief Justice Surya Kant’s assurance on Friday that he would try to put the case before a special vacation bench, subject to judges being available. Failing that, he said, “the matter would be listed on October 26”, when regular benches return.

Vijayan, his daughter Veena T and Mohammad Riyas have moved the court. They are challenging a single-judge order of 9 October that directed the state’s Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to register a criminal case on the strength of a report forwarded to the police by the Enforcement Directorate. A division bench of the High Court dismissed their appeals on 15 October, while leaving them free to pursue other remedies.

Arguing for an early hearing last week, senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Vijayan, told the bench of the Chief Justice and Justice Joymalya Bagchi: “We are seeking protection from arrest or any other coercive action.” He added: “It is a matter of liberty.”

Luthra has argued that the single-judge order was passed in proceedings resembling public interest litigation, and has taken issue with the division bench’s view that there is “no right to be heard before an FIR is registered”.

The case concerns payments by the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd (CMRL) to Exalogic Solutions, Veena’s IT firm. It has become a sharp political issue in Keralam, where some Congress leaders have questioned the United Democratic Front government’s choice of a preliminary inquiry over an FIR. Congress MLA Chandy Oommen said at the weekend that Vijayan must not be “hounded” the way his father, the late Oommen Chandy, had been.