A case involving former Kerala Minister Thomas Chandy in an alleged illegal land deal took a curious turn in the Supreme Court on Friday, with his lawyer writing a letter to the court requesting a shift in the Bench.
The reason cited by senior advocate Vivek Tankha, who represented Mr. Chandy in the Kerala High Court, is he has “personal reasons” to not appear before one of the judges on the Bench of Justices R.K. Agrawal and A.M. Sapre, before which the case was originally listed for hearing.
Mr. Tankha, according to the letter, “does not appear before the Bench in which Hon’ble Justice Sapre is a part of.”
After the letter, dated December 13, the case came up on Friday, for the first time, before a three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud.
Convention demands that such a request be made before the two-Judge Bench when the case comes up for hearing in open court. It would have been left entirely to Justice Sapre to decide on the request.
This letter was revealed by advocate V.K. Biju in court during the hearing. Mr. Biju is appearing for a caveator in the case and had received a copy from the petitioner’s lawyer.
The letter, written and signed by K.R. Sasiprabhu, another lawyer of Mr. Chandy, is addressed to the Registrar General of the Supreme Court. It says that unless the Bench is changed, Mr. Chandy runs the risk of losing the “service of an able lawyer, who is well-versed in the facts and laws involved in the case”.
The last paragraph of the letter says, “in the circumstances, I will be praying for listing of the matter before another Bench immediately after the Winter vacation. This letter may kindly be circulated among the Hon’ble judges, at my risk, to avoid inconvenience to their Lordships.”
Judge recuses from case
The short hearing, however, saw Justice Khanwilkar recuse from the case. This led Chief Justice Misra to order the matter to be posted before another approrpiate Bench where neither he nor Justices Khanwilkar or Chandrachud are part of.
Mr. Chandy appealed a November 14 decision of the Kerala High Court dismissing his pleas in the Lake Palace Resort row which led to his resignation as Transport Minister.
Mr. Chandy had argued that the controversy was spurred by the mala fide actions of the Alappuzha District Collector to file interim reports implicating him as the owner of lands in violation of the provisions of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy and Wetland Act of 2008.
He had submitted that the State functionary’s “mala fide action” caused irreparable damage to his personal reputation and a serious blow to his political career. He argued that the High Court was wrong to conclude that as Cabinet minister he should not have moved it against a collective decision of the very State Cabinet, of which he was a part of.
The High Court had rejected Mr. Chandy’s petition by invoking Article 164 (2) of the Constitution that the “Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the Legislative Assembly of the State”.
The court's remarks had cost the Transport Minister his job.
