The High Court on Friday slammed a petitioner for approaching the court with a plea for a Vigilance inquiry against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for allegedly misusing public money by undertaking foreign tours, observing that the information obtained under the RTI Act showed that most of the trips were undertaken for official purposes or affairs connected with the administrative matters of the State.
Justice P. Ubaid observed that on perusal of the materials, including information obtained by the writ petitioner, he did not prima facie find anything suspicious about the foreign trips undertaken by the Chief Minister. The court said that it would examine whether the petitioner had any personal or political interest in the matter.
The petition was filed by D. Francis, a member of the anti-corruption organisation based in Kanyakumari.
‘File affidavit’
The court asked the petitioner to file an affidavit explaining why he doubted that the foreign trips undertaken by the Chief Minister were for his personal purposes. Besides, what was his stand as regarding the permission granted by the Union Ministry of External Affairs for the Chief Minister’s foreign visits, the court asked the petitioner.
The court directed the petitioner to state whether he had obtained or applied for the previous approval or sanction of the competent authority under Section 17 A of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The court also took counsel for the petitioner to task for collecting the information under the RTI Act by himself.
The court directed the petitioner to explain whether he had collected any information on his own, or how he could use or make use of the information collected by his counsel.
