The hearing for the SNC-Lavalin scandal involving Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has been postponed by the Supreme Court. The division bench comprising Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar was supposed to consider the case on Monday, which coincides with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Kerala. However, CT Ravikumar recused himself from the case as he was previously part of the hearing in the High Court.
The CBI petition against the Chief Minister and others’ acquittal in the case, as well as the petition against the High Court’s ruling that they should face trial, are pending before the apex court. This would have been the 33rd time the case has come before the court, with the last hearing taking place in November 2022 under Chief Justice UU Lalit.
The CBI had moved the Supreme Court in August 2017 after the High Court of Kerala acquitted Pinarayi and two others — K Mohanachandran, former power secretary, and A Francis, former joint secretary in the power department — from the corruption case. Pinarayi was accused of causing a loss to the state exchequer by awarding a contract to Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin when he was the power minister in 1996.
Listed as the 21st case of the day, the petitions were supposed to be heard by a bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar. However, the lawyer of former joint secretary of the energy department A Francis has requested an adjournment of three weeks due to his illness.
There was uncertainty if there would be a hearing on Monday as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was scheduled to appear for the CBI, might be preoccupied. Mehta is also set to appear for the Centre when the constitutional bench takes up pleas on the same-sex marriage row.
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