Attempt to mislead court? Centre fined ₹25,000 for providing false information

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has imposed a fine of ₹25,000 on the Central Government for providing misleading information regarding the investigation into the dredger corruption case involving former Kerala DGP Jacob Thomas. A bench of Justices Rajesh Bindal and Vijay Bishnoi questioned if it was an attempt to mislead the court.

The list of officials who were to go to the Netherlands was handed over by the state vigilance to the Union Home Ministry in November, but the Centre said that it had not received it. After the state government's lawyer handed over a copy of the letter, the court asked Additional Solicitor General SV Raju to inform the truth. When the case was considered again in the afternoon, it was admitted that the letter had been received. The officials of the Home Ministry had made a mistake. The Additional Solicitor General requested forgiveness for the small mistake made by the officials who handle more than ten thousand cases.

The court imposed the fine by asking what would have happened if an order had been made based on incorrect information. Although it was decided to impose a fine of ₹50,000, the fine was reduced to ₹25,000 after the request of the Additional Solicitor General.

The court was considering the petitions filed by the state government and public activist Sathyan Naravoor against the Kerala High Court's decision to quash the vigilance case against Jacob Thomas. It will be considered again on April 21.

Can be collected from officials

The court said that the fine can be collected from the responsible officials by identifying them. The officials are planning to go to the Netherlands to question the Dutch company officials involved in the case. The vigilance case alleges that Jacob Thomas, while he was the port director, connived at the dredger deal by bypassing the technical committee.