The state government suffered a huge setback on Thursday in the Lavalin case as the hearing was postponed by another two months by the Kerala High Court.
“There are a pile of cases since 2000 which require urgent hearing. Why is it that this case needs to be considered on an urgent basis? The court doesn’t think so that it requires an urgent hearing,” said the court.
“The petition is not of an urgent nature. So it can be postponed by 2 months."
The court said that the case should not be used to settle political disputes or for temporary political gains.
The court also noted that the CBI is the prosecuting agency in the Lavalin case, so why approach the court in the first place.
Home minister Ramesh Chennithala himself had made a note that the High Court need not be approached in the Lavalin case. The same was endorsed by Home Secretary Nalini Netto and legal secretary BG Hareendranath.
Yet the government chose to approach the High Court overlooking all this.
The case pertains to an agreement with Canadian firm SNC Lavalin for renovation of three hydro electric power projects which allegedly caused a loss of Rs 374.50 crore to the state exchequer. The final agreement with the company was signed when Pinarayi Vijayan was power minister in the 1990s in the LDF ministry headed by the late E K Nayanar.