CM warned against turning judiciary into political arena

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief minister Oommen Chandy's move to tie opposition leader V S Achuthanandan's tongue using judiciary ended in a debacle on Friday . District judge K P Indira, before whom the CM made the plea to restrain Achuthanandan from making defamatory statements, warned him that courts must not be made a platform for playing politics.
The episode took place during the hearing of defamation suit filed by Chandy against Achuthanandan.Chandy and VS were represented by their counsels, district government pleader A Santhosh Kumar and advocate Cherunniyoor Sasidharan, respectively.
On Thursday , Chandy filed a defamation suit against VS before the vacation court here for making baseless statements. The statement made by VS at the election convention at Dharmadom in Kannur that there were 136 cases in total against the UDF ministers and 31 cases against the chief minister alone formed the base of the litigation.
As the proceedings commenced, the court asked Santhosh Kumar whether he had turned up as the district government pleader. He replied that he was representing CM as his private counsel, following which the judge asked him to proceed.
Kumar stated that VS's statements affected his client's reputation as well as other UDF ministers and hence a compensation of Rs 1 lakh may be levied from him. He also requested for an interim order restraining VS from making further statements.
But the court dismissed the plea, stating that such an interim order might affect the republican form of government. The judge then held that court must not be made a platform for politics. "The judicial system cannot be used by politicians as a platform for raising allegations against their opponent politicians, especially , when the election is scheduled for May 16," held judge Indira.
The VS's counsel stated that his client stood by the statements, made based on information secured through RTI Act. He also presented a list of 12 cases pending before the Lok Ayukta against the CM. He stated that the list was taken from Lok Ayukta's website on Friday . He sought two weeks' time to file an affidavit in the case with more evidence. Though the CM's counsel objected, court admitted the plea and posted the case for May 12.
Mudslinging continues
Chief minister Oommen Chandy and opposition leader V S Achuthanandan continued their war of words on Friday. "The opposition leader said there are 31 cases against me. I have declared in the affidavit that there are no cases against me. Either he should challenge the affidavit or admit mistake,"Chandy said after submitting his nomination papers.
After he learned about the court's refusal to entertain his plea Chandy said he did not seek regulating the speech of VS. "But, his nonsensical talk needs to be controlled. If he doesn't stop himself, people of Kerala will make him stop," Chandy said.
In his Facebook response later in the day VS taunted the Oommen Chandy. "Chandy got enough and more when tried to escape from the poll arena. He has now entered a wrong arena. Come back, let us fight it out," he said.
He later cited a case in Bangalore court against Chandy, but the chief minister wanted to know why he had mentioned only 12 cases against him in the court despite holding on to the allegation that there were 31 cases against him.