The Kerala High Court on Tuesday asked the lawyer of the State minister Thomas Chandy to consider the option of withdrawing his writ petition challenging the report of the Alappuzha district collector mentioning Mr. Chandy’s name as the landowner in the Lake palace case.
If the Minister is not withdrawing it unconditionally, the court shall issue an order, the division bench said. The court will consider the case at 1.45 pm.
Lashing out against the Minister, the court orally observed that it was highly inappropriate for a minster to file a case against his own government.
“It's a classic case for disqualification. The writ petition shows that the Minister has lost trust in the Chief Minister and the government in which he is also a Minister. We are embarrassed to say that a minister cannot file a write petition against his own government,” the court said.
The government functions with collective responsibility. Here, a minister has moved the court against his own government and arraigned the Chief Secretary as a party, the court said.
If the contentious land is not in his name, the Minister should show the records to the world and say that he dosen’t own the land, the court observed.
Instead of filing a writ petition, the Minister should approach the Alappuzha district collector and submit that the land in question is not owned by him, the court observed.