A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday set aside a single judge’s verdict quashing a government decision not to take any disciplinary action against Siby Mathews, now State Chief Information Commissioner and former Additional Director General of Police, and two other former police officers on the basis of a CBI report pointing out lapses in the ISRO espionage cases.
The Bench of Acting Chief Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice A. Shaffique passed the verdict while allowing appeals filed by Mr. Mathews, S. Vijayan, former circle inspector (Special Branch), and K.K. Joshua, former Superintendent of Police who initially investigated the case.
The single judge had directed the State government to take a fresh call on the issue after quashing the government order. That verdict came on a writ petition filed by S. Nambi Narayanan, former ISRO scientist.
The Bench also observed that the single judge had no jurisdiction to quash the government order on the ground that no proper inquiry was conducted on the basis of the CBI report.
