A single-judge bench of the Kerala High Court held on Thursday that the writ petition seeking CBI probe against the state’s Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, regarding the gold smuggling case, has to be treated as a ‘public Interest Litigation’.
In accordance with this, Justice V G Arun pointed the matter towards the Chief Justice to get it allocated to the concerned division bench which particularly deals with the PILs.
Earlier, the writ petition filed by Michael Varghese was produced before the Hon’ble Justice V G Arun. It was after, when advocate Mathews Nedumpara, who objected that the concerned matter should be regarded as a PIL.
Furthermore, advocate Mathews argued that he was offended and resentful due to the deficiency of proper investigation with respect to the involvement of the Chief Minister’s office in the gold smuggling affair. He also added that, as a citizen, the petitioner’s right to seek information regarding a crime should be well-established but these should not be increased in the PILs.
While agreeing to these arguments, the bench held that “even after the vocal and vehement submissions by the petitioner, this matter should be acknowledged as a PIL.”
(This news has been written and submitted by Ms. Vishakha Bhardwaj during her course of internship at B&B Associates LLP. Ms. Vishakha is a third-year law student at the Army Institute of Law, Mohali.)
