The former Kerala Chief Minister, V.S. Achuthanandan, on Tuesday challenged in the Supreme Court the release by the government of the former Minister R. Balakrishna Pillai, who had been sentenced to one-year imprisonment in the Idamalayar dam case, by granting him remission along with about 2,500 prisoners.
Advocate R. Sathish, who filed the petition, mentioned this before Justices P. Sathasivam and B.S. Chauhan (it was this Bench which awarded imprisonment to Mr. Pillai), for listing of the case. However, Justice Sathasivam said that since it was a separate cause of action, counsel could mention before the Chief Justice of India or file the petition in the Registry in the normal course. Accordingly, it was filed in the Registry.
The petitioner pointed out that Mr. Pillai was in jail for just 93 days and thereafter was on parole and taking treatment in hospital. Even when he was in jail, he was using the mobile phone contrary to prison rules and for this violation he was not entitled to the remission, which the Kerala government granted on October 31 in connection with the State Reorganisation Day, November 1.
The government decision to allow Mr. Pillai to serve the rest of the sentence in hospital violated the court judgment, the petition said. Even this sentence became a formality due to the unlawful interference of the government and the “unholy relationship” he was maintaining with Cabinet Ministers (his son is one of the Ministers) and top bureaucrats. Mahesh Mohan, a law student, also filed a contempt petition against the Kerala government which, he said, hatched a conspiracy to wilfully violate the court decision by releasing Mr. Pillai, who had served a meagre 93 days out of the one-year term imposed under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The contemnors according benefit to Mr. Pillai would amount to making a mockery of the law of the land and the orders passed by this court.
