Four cases including one in name of CM’s daughter, HC disagrees cancelling fine imposed on petitioner

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court refused to cancel the fine imposed on the petitioner for listing four cases including one related to chief minister’s daughter before the vacation bench by seeking urgent consideration. The court asked the petitioner M R Ajayan, to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 for each case, amounting to a total of Rs 40,000. The court also warned that if such actions are repeated in the future, the fine will not be limited to Rs 10,000.

The bench comprising Justices A Jayasankar Nambiar and Jobin Sebastian made this clear. The court further directed that the Rs 40,000 imposed as court expenses by the vacation bench be paid to the Kerala Legal Services Authority.

The fine was imposed for listing four cases before the vacation bench, including a petition seeking a CBI investigation into the alleged transaction between Exalogic, a company owned by chief minister’s daughter Veena, and CMRL, as well as the Sabarimala gold theft case. The incident happened on December 23. The petitioner had filed a review plea challenging this.

However, the court dismissed the review petition, stating that the petitioner’s action was mala fide and that there were no sufficient grounds for review. The court pointed out that the cases were originally decided to be taken up on January 21 after the court vacation, but were later listed before the vacation bench. The court also noted that vacation benches are meant to consider only cases of urgent importance.