Kerala Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson moved the Supreme Court on Friday seeking discharge in the 21-year-old palmolein import corruption case for lack of prior sanction from the Centre to prosecute him under the Prevention of Corruption Act. A Bench led by Justice T.S. Thakur agreed to hear the senior bureaucrat and tagged the matter along with a pending one filed by former Chief Vigilance Commissioner P.J. Thomas, who is also accused in the palmolein case. Mr. Thomas had separately challenged the validity of the FIR filed in the case.
Mr. Thomson, represented by senior advocate V. Giri and advocates Saju Jacob and Sunil Kumar Varma, contended that allegations about his involvement did not hold up as the Centre had already refused to grant prior sanction for his prosecution. He further challenged the validity of the sanction given by the State government in 1999 to prosecute him for criminal conspiracy.
Submission
His counsel submitted that Mr. Thomson was only following a Cabinet decision and the orders of his superiors and there was no “meeting of minds” - a necessary pre-requisite to prove the offence of conspiracy.
