The Supreme Court has declined to review its order dismissing the petition of Thannicakal Gopinathan Nandakumar challenging a Kerala High Court judgment rejecting his petition questioning a CBI probe involving handing over of the State Data Centre to the Reliance Group in 2008.
A Bench of Justices H.L. Dattu and Ranjan Gogoi dismissed the review petition in the chamber on Saturday. In a brief order, the Bench said, “we have gone through the review petition and the connected papers. We see no reason to interfere with the order impugned. The review petition is dismissed.”
AG’s stanceOn October 28, the same Bench had dismissed Mr. Nandakumar’s petition accepting the Kerala Advocate General’s (AG) statement that his submissions before the High Court for a CBI probe was based on the instructions he received from Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. The Bench had taken the view that after the AG had explained his position, nothing survived in the petition.
The probe pertains to the role of former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, Mr. Nandakumar (who was alleged to have facilitated the award of tender), and three others in the award of tender for IT services management consisting of operations, maintenance, upgrade, security audit, and certification of the State Data Centre and three Network Operating Centres.
The processIn his affidavit, the AG had stated that the writ petition came up for admission in the Kerala High Court on February 6, 2012, and it was adjourned to February 23 to enable him to seek instructions. Thereafter, he wrote to the Chief Secretary, with copies marked to the Secretary, Vigilance Department, the Director General of Police, and the Director, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, for instructions for the purpose of effectively defending the case.
On February 23, the AG had said he was informed over phone by Mr. Chandy to report to the court that the State government would entrust the investigation of the case in question to the CBI.
CM’s instructionHe said “based on the said instruction given to me by the Chief Minister, I made a submission before the High Court on February 23 to the effect that a decision is already taken at the government level to hand over the case to the CBI, recording which, the writ petition was closed.” In his affidavit, the State Chief Secretary also pressed for a CBI probe. He said the State Cabinet had rejected the advise of Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati against instituting a CBI inquiry into the case.
The Attorney General had instead suggested that the State government to go for a Vigilance probe first. But the affidavit, he said sought to correct him saying the Vigilance had already looked into the matter. It also recalled that the State government was favourably disposed to the option of a CBI inquiry from as early as February last year. This was based on exchange of views between and collective decision by Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, who is in charge of Vigilance, and IT Minister P.K. Kunhalikutty.
