Kerala HC declines to stay vandalism case; huge setback for Sivankutty

Kochi: Serving a setback to Kerala state Education Minister V. Sivankutty, along with five others, the Kerala High Court chose not to stay a lower court's order against the six on a case of vandalism on the floor of the Assembly in 2015. The court directed them to appear before it on September 14, IANS reported.

Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, who was pursuing the case, said on Friday that he is happy and his efforts bore fruit.

"This is yet another setback for Pinarayi Vijayan and his government, who have been trailing this case from the lower court to the High Court to the Supreme Court and has suffered reversal after reversal and today's verdict is the last one. They have to face the trial," Chennithala said.

Earlier, when the state government approached the Supreme court pleading withdrawal of the criminal case against the accused six, it ruled that no immunity or privilege could be awarded to legislators resorting to vandalism during a House session. It ordered them to face the trial.

Of the six accused, Sivankutty and former minister K.T. Jaleel are members of the present Assembly. The others are Left Democratic Front convenor E.P. Jayarajan, C.K. Sadasivan, Kunhahmed Master and K. Ajith, all former legislators. They all were charged under the prevention of damage to public property act and other provisions

The Assembly had witnessed violent scenes in March 2015, after the then Left opposition tried to prevent the then Finance Minister K M. Mani from presenting the budget, alleging his role in the bar bribery case.