Solar case: Kerala High Court upholds decision to form probe panel

Dismisses petition filed by Saritha S. Nair

July 25, 2014 12:31 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 05:33 pm IST - KOCHI:

The Kerala High Court on Thursday upheld the government decision to constitute a judicial commission to inquire into the solar scam.

Justice A. Muhamed Mustaque passed the verdict upholding the constitution while dismissing a writ petition filed by Saritha S. Nair, one of the accused in the solar panel cases. She had alleged that appointment of the commission was politically motivated.

As per Section 3(1) of the Commission of Inquiries Act, a commission could be appointed only for inquiring into the issues involving public importance. In fact, the allegations in these cases centred on disputes between a company established by her under the Companies Act and a private individual.

Besides, none of the documents collected by the police indicated any loss having caused to the public exchequer. Even if these cases involved public interest, it had to be probed by the Central Investigation Agency and not by the commission.

The commission was only a fact-finding body. The points mentioned in the terms of reference could not be investigated by a commission. The intention of the government was to make the petitioner a scapegoat in the solar scam cases. She also pointed out that the notice issued by the Justice G. Sivarajan Commission eliciting certain points from her was beyond the scope of the inquiry. Besides, these points could not be decided in the proceedings of the commission.

Dismissing her pleas, the court observed that the terms of reference did not indicate that the commission was constituted for targeting any particular individual.

It was constituted as the government felt that an inquiry into the solar scam was essential and it wanted to have regulatory or legislative measures put in place to prevent such scams in future. In fact, the commission was constituted with the purpose of making suggestions in this regard.

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