Kerala HC dismisses plea against four CPI ministers

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) : The Kerala High Court on Friday dismissed the petition filed by film director Alleppey Ashraf seeking disqualification of four Communist Party of India (CPI) ministers who boycotted a cabinet meeting on November 15 due to lack of evidence to establish the petitioner's claims.

The court suggested that the petitioner should hand over the complaint, if any, to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

"The power to take decision on such matters are vested with the Chief Minister," the court observed.

A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Antony Dominic and Justice A Muhammed Mustaque were hearing the case.

Earlier, the four CPI ministers had abstained from the state cabinet meeting held on November 15 after their party protested participation of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) nominee Thomas Chandy in the cabinet even after the High Court made stinging observations against him in an encroachment case.

Following the court's observations, Chandy had resigned as state transport minister.

The observations were made when Chandy, accused of land encroachment for his luxury resort, had challenged a report by Alappuzha district collector in this regard.

In his plea, Ashraf sought a direction to the chief minister not to permit participation of CPI ministers in evolving important policy decisions in view of the "commission of breach of oath" taken by them under the constitution.

He said Revenue minister E Chandrasekharan, Food minister P Thilothaman, Agriculture minister V S Sunil Kumar and Forests minister K Raju had failed in fulfilling their constitutional obligations by boycotting the cabinet meeting.