CMDRF misuse: Lok Ayukta postpones hearing to July 20

Thiruvananthapuram: Lok Ayukta’s full bench on Monday postponed the hearing of the CMDRF misuse case to July 20, considering the request of the petitioner’s lawyer. While considering the case, the Lok Ayukta asked why the petitioner was pestering the judges by continuously requesting for postponement of the hearing. Justice Cyriac Joseph said the burden of the case hearing should be taken off from the Lok Ayukta at the earliest. He said the Lok Ayukta was shouldering the case burden and it longed for a permanent solution at the earliest.The petitioner’s lawyer informed the Lok Ayukta that the application to postpone the hearing was filed as per the instructions of the high court and it had given clear instructions to the director general of prosecution in this regard. However, the government pleader said the request for postponement should not be accepted. Upa Lok Ayukta Babu Mathew Joseph said the oral instructions of high court were not binding on the Lok Ayukta. Instead, the HC should have directly communicated the same to the Lok Ayukta or should have stayed the hearing by an order. At one point, Lok Ayukta said it was good that postponement petitions are filed every now and then so that it would make news in the media.The petitioner R S Sasikumar filed the postponement petition since the petition he filed in the high court against the Lok Ayukta referring the case to the full bench, after completing the hearing of the case, was pending before the HC. The Lok Ayukta had referred the case to the full bench to look into the maintainability of the case, in which chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan is the prime accused.Meanwhile, Sasikumar termed the Lok Ayukta’s comments that the plea to postpone the hearing was pressed to garner media attention as unfortunate. The petitioner had challenged the cabinet decision to grant Rs 25 lakh from CMDRF to the family of former NCP leader Uzhavoor Vijayan and Rs 8.5 lakh to the family of late Chengannur MLA, Ramachandran Nair, and Rs 20 lakh to the family of a police personnel who died in an accident while serving the pilot duty of former CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.
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