Oommen Chandy approaches High Court against 'Solar' Commission

Kochi: Former chief minister Oommen Chandy has approached the high court with a petition to annul the report of the Solar commission.

The petition requests the court to cancel all actions following the letter of Saritha, and reqeusts the court to expunge the Commission's references defamatory to him.

In his petition, the former CM has based his plea on a few points: all the inferences of the Commission are based on the content of Saritha's letter and they should be expunged; the terms of reference were amended subsequent to the appointment without a proper notification; there are references defamatory to him and should be removed. The petition also requests the court to forbit publication of the commission's report and having debates based on that, and to repeal the government order based on the commission report.

Chandy's petition mentions that the commission impleaded several who had no relation with the solar scam, and when a few were made party to the enquiry on certain conditions put by the government, those conditions were not satisfied. The petitioner also highlights the fact that in September 2017 as soon as the government received the report, it hastily called a press meet about the same even before tabling it at the assembly as required by law. Chandy has attached to the petition the copies of the legal advice given to the government by Supreme Court lawyer Arijit Pasayat.

However, when the petition came up for hearing on Monday, Justice Shaji P Chaly recused himself from hearing the case, and so the petition will be heard by another single judge on Tuesday. Supreme Court senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, who is also a Congress leader, is expected to appear for Oommen Chandy.