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Kerala HC to probe minister’s anti-Constitution remarks
The Kerala HC ordered further investigation by the state crime branch (SCB) into Saji Cheriyan allegedly making anti-Constitution remarks at a party meeting in July 2022
The Kerala high court on Thursday ordered further investigation by the state crime branch (SCB) into the case of CPI(M) leader and state fisheries minister Saji Cheriyan allegedly making anti-Constitution remarks at a party meeting in July 2022.
In a setback for the minister, the high court bench of justice Bechu Kurian Thomas set aside the order of the Thiruvalla judicial first class magistrate court, which had accepted the final report of the police stating that it was “dropping further proceedings” against the minister after conducting a probe into it.
The HC ruling came in response to a petition challenging the Thiruvalla JFCM court’s order and demanding an investigation again into the case by the CBI citing the “absolute disrespect” shown to the Constitution of India by a minister who took an oath by it.
Cheriyan, speaking at a party meeting in Mallappally in Pathanamthitta on July 3, 2022, was quoted saying in Malayalam, “India has the ideal Constitution to loot the maximum number of people. The Constitution prepared by the British was written by an Indian. It has been implemented in this country for 75 years. It is written in the Indian Constitution that there will be secularism, democracy, ‘kuntham’, ‘kodachakram’.”
While “kuntham” and “kodachakram” literally mean spear and a kind of firecracker, they are often used in collocation with each other in the Malayalam language, mostly not in a respectful manner, the court noted.
The minister, who resigned from the cabinet in the wake of the row on July 6, was later reinstated after police submitted its report in the trial court stating it was dropping all proceedings against him.
Following the events, leader of opposition VD Satheesan demanded the minister’s resignation.
“The court has made it clear that the police report into the case, while he was the minister, is not acceptable. Therefore, it’s clear that he has influenced the probe while being the minister. If he does not resign on his own, the chief minister must expel him from the cabinet,” he said.
However, Cheriyan ruled out his resignation, stating that he has the right to appeal against the verdict before the division bench of the HC.
“The HC has merely ordered a probe after quashing the police report exonerating me. I am not a party to the case. So there is no ground for me to quit office,” he said.
The HC underlined that it was difficult to comprehend the conclusion drawn by the investigating officer that there was no intention behind the minister’s words to insult the Constitution.
“Intention must be gathered from the circumstances and contextually, the words used. In fact, certain words by themselves can manifest the intention. When the statutory intention is explicit that no member of the public shall disrespect the Constitution, and when the words themselves can manifest the intention, the conclusion of the investigating officer is not legally tenable,” the court ruled.
The HC also rapped the police for coming to a conclusion even before collecting all the materials to connect the accused with the nature of offence alleged and before receiving the report of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL). The officer’s conclusion was arrived at “in haste and without proper appreciation”, it said.
The magistrate also erred in accepting the final report of the police without noticing that there were witnesses like journalists who had viewed the speech of the accused, the HC said.
However, the court did not allow the petitioner’s request for a CBI probe and instead asked the state crime branch to conduct further investigation.
