It is a virtual face-off between Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his predecessor Oommen Chandy over the solar judicial commission report.
Even as Mr. Chandy shot off a letter to the Chief Minister seeking a copy of the report, Mr. Vijayan told a news agency in New Delhi that the government would not hand over copy of the letter to the former Chief Minister. His stand is that publicising the report now would be a breach of law.
In his letter, which was released to the media here on Monday, Mr. Chandy said the government’s decision to initiate criminal action against him without publishing the report or revealing the relevant portions of the report was ‘arbitrary and illogical’ and amounted to denial of his rights as a citizen. On October 12, he had sought a copy of the report and the legal advice given by the Advocate General and Director of Prosecutions under the RTI Act. However, the Law Minister had gone on record on Sunday that there was no question of the government giving copy of the report to him, he pointed out.
However, the Chief Minister told IANS in Delhi that the government would place the commission report in the Assembly at the appropriate time. The law stipulated tabling of such reports within six months of their submission. Any other action would amount to breach of law. The government’s actions in the matter were not politically motivated. The commission itself was not appointed by the LDF government. It could either table the report as such or table it with an action taken report. The government proposed to do the latter, the agency quoted the Chief Minister as saying.