The Kerala High Court Administrative Committee on Wednesday rejected the explanation given by N.V. Raju, now Kasaragod Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), in response to a vigilance inquiry finding that he had committed serous procedural lapses in not recording the statement of Saritha S. Nair, one of the accused in the solar panel scam, when he functioned as Ernakulam Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Economic Offences).
Memo to be issuedThe administrative committee, headed by Chief Justice Manjula Chellur, decided to issue him a memo of charges as it was of the opinion that there was a prima facie finding that there were serious procedural lapses on his part.
The committee would take further action on getting his explanation to the memo of charges.
If the committee was not satisfied with his explanation, a detailed inquiry would be conducted either by a High Court Judge or a district judge.
According to High Court sources, these were part of the disciplinary proceedings being initiated against him as per the Kerala Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules.
The High Court vigilance wing had conducted a preliminary inquiry into the alleged lapses of Mr. Raju on a complaint that the magistrate had rejected a request of Saritha to record her statement when she was produced before the magistrate on July 20, 2013.
The Vigilance Registrar in his report said the accused should have been given the required materials such as pen and paper to write down her statements.
The procedural lapses of the magistrate’s court, especially its decision not to record Saritha’s complaint after listening to her for nearly 20 minutes, had invited flak from various quarters.
