Director General of Prosecution T. Asaf Ali told the Kerala High Court on Tuesday that Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan, former Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran, former Kasaragod Collector N.A. Krishnan Kutty, Mr. Achuthanandan’s relative T.K. Soman, and A. Suresh, staffer of the Opposition leader, had been arraigned as accused number 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively in a case of alleged illegal land allotment to Mr. Soman in Kasaragod.
Petitions dismissed
He contended that the High Court had earlier dismissed the petitions of Mr. Soman challenging the very same first information report (FIR) filed against him.
A plea by Mr. Suresh had also been dismissed by the High Court.
In fact, the challenge against the FIR had been decided by the High Court and hence it was hit by res judicata .
SLPs pending
He pointed out that the special leave petitions filed by Mr. Soman and Mr. Suresh against the High Court orders were pending before the Supreme Court.
He pointed out that government land could be assigned only to serving military personnel and not ex-service personnel.
Mr. Soman would not come under the category of serving personnel and, therefore, he was not entitled to preferential treatment.
The then Cabinet headed by Mr. Achuthanandan had taken a decision to exempt the land from the clause of prohibition of transfer for 25 years for the benefits of Mr. Soman.
The previous government’s decision in this regard was illegal.
The Cabinet had no authority to relax the requirements of the rule.
It was a settled principle that a statutory rule could not be “supplanted or modified” by executive orders.
The circumstances and facts revealed that the land was assigned based on a conspiracy hatched by the accused.
