Kochi, January 07 : The Kerala High Court on Thursday pulled up the State government over the bar bribery case, asking Advocate General K P Dandapani why no First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Excise Minister K Babu.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice A M Shafique also sought to know what action was taken by the Vigilance Director on the quick verification report against K Babu submitted six months ago in the bar bribery case.
The court asked the Vigilance director to submit an affidavit within a week detailing action taken thus far on the bar bribery case.
The division bench gave the directives while hearing a petition filed by Communist Party of India legislator V S Sunil Kumar demanding a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the case on the ground that a Vigilance inquiry was insufficient to ferret out the complete truth behind the case.
Hearing the petition, the division bench cited the Supreme Court judgement in Lalita Kumari’s case to ask the Advocate General why no FIR had been registered against the Excise Minister.
In Lalita Kumari’s case, the apex court had laid down that registration of FIR under section 154 of Criminal Procedure Code was mandatory where information discloses commission of a cognizable offence.
When the Advocate General pointed out that a quick verification was conducted by the Vigilance against the Minister, the court questioned the failure on the part of the Vigilance Director to submit the report before the Vigilance court despite six months having elapsed since the completion of the report.
In response, the AG said the delay in submitting the report before the Vigilance court was owing to pendency of various cases on the same issue before different courts.
