LDF caught in a spat

The ongoing tussle prompts a debate on AG’s powers

The Left Democratic Front government has been caught in a spat between Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan and the Advocate General C.P. Sudhakara Prasad over the handling of cases related to Transport Minister Thomas Chandy, who has been in the dock for alleged encroachment of government land and backwaters by a resort owned by him.

The Advocate General’s summary rejection of the Minister’s direction to hand over the Thomas Chandy cases to Additional Advocate General Ranjith Thampan was instrumental in igniting a war of words that found Communist Party of India State secretary Kanam Rajendran coming out in support of his party’s nominee in the Pinarayi Cabinet.

The AG apparently took the stand that the powers to allocate work was within his domain while taking the decision to divest his colleague of the responsibility of handling the cases. The Minister’s direction came close on the heels of a rather debilitating report submitted by the Alappuzha district collector on the encroachment and reclamation, part of which is now a subject matter before the High Court.

With Mr. Rajendran joining issue, the tussle is now assumed a political dimension juxtaposing one coalition partner against another since Thomas Chandy belongs to the Nationalist Congress Party. The verbal duel was preceded by the Revenue Minister writing to the Chief Minister pointing out that the collector’s report had certain references that made the Transport Minister culpable. However, the issue was referred to the AG for a legal opinion.

Another twist

The fact that the Advocate General is a CPI(M) nominee and the Additional AG is a CPI nominee has also given it another twist. Apart from bring out the latent distrust, the tussle has given a handle to the Opposition to beat the LDF leadership. Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala even went to the extent of suspecting whether the AG’s hard stand had the backing of the Chief Minister, who was perceived as pulling the strings to save Mr. Chandy.

The ongoing tussle has also prompted a debate on the powers of the AG and whether the Minister was above him. Mr. Rajendran quoted the Constitutional provisions and an earlier Supreme Court verdict to draw the relationship between in relation to the Minister. The Chief Minister has been a silent spectator so far in this issue.