Minister KT Jaleel Moves Kerala High Court Against Lokayukta Order Charging Him With Nepotism

K T Jaleel, Kerala's Minister for Higher Education and Minority Welfare has moved the Kerala High Court against the report of the Kerala Lok Ayukta charging him with nepotism, abuse of power and favouritism in giving government appointment to his second cousin by altering norms.

Specifically under challenge is Paragraph 54 of the said Report, wherein the Lok Ayukta comprising Justices Cyriac Joseph (former Supreme Court judge) and Harun-Ul-Rashid (former High Court judge) held that that Jaleel should not continue as a Member of the Council of Ministers on account of the charges against him.

Filing his petition through Advocate PC Sasidharan, the Minister alleges that the Lok Ayukta finalised its Report solely based on the oral arguments of the parties before it.

Among other prayers, the Minister seeks declaration by the Court that the Lok Ayukta's finding that the petitioner has committed an act of abuse of power, favouritism, nepotism and violation of Oath of Office is not based on any material evidence or after any investigation and one liable to be set aside.

On February 5, the Lok Ayukta had issued an order stating that as part of preliminary investigation notice before admission may be issued to respondents, returnable on March 30, the petition points out. "No investigation either preliminary or regular was conducted", the petition avers, referring to the Order of the Kerala Lok Ayukta dated February 5.

Charging the final report as one having been made without following any procedure mandated under law to arrive at a finding, Jaleel's plea asserts that the same is violative of natural justice as well as the statutory provisions of the Kerala Lok Ayukta Act, and therefore one liable to be interfered with by the Court.

Additionally, the plea argues that the subject matter of the proceedings, specifically, the prescription of qualification and appointment to the State Minority Development Finance Corporation, is excluded from the purview of the investigation under the Lok Ayukta Act.

The petition contends that the matters in dispute in the proceedings before the Lok Ayukta were previously presented before the High Court as well as the Governor and both refused to entertain the issue.

With these prayers, the Minister seeks,

• A quash of the Lok Ayukta's Report
• A declaration that the procedure adopted for submitting the report under Section 12(3) of the Kerala Lok Ayukta Act, 1999 was a violation of the principles of natural justice and violative of the statutory mandate of law contained in the Lok Ayukta Act.
• A declaration that the report and declaration that Paragraph 54 of the Report is non est in the eye of law, since it was not prepared in terms of the statutory mandate and a direction that the competent authority shall not proceed further with the matter.

In the Interim, the petitioner seeks a stay of all further proceedings and declaration made in Paragraph 54.

The Kerala Lok Ayukta recently found K T Jaleel, Minister for Higher Education and Minority Welfare, guilty of nepotism, abuse of power and favoritism and held that he violated his oath of office by giving government appointment to his second cousin by altering norms.

Significantly, the Lok Ayukta made declaration under Section 12(3) of the Kerala Lok Ayukta Act that Jaleel should not continue as a Member of the Council of Ministers. Such a declaration has to be accepted by the Chief Minister under Section 14 of the Act. On acceptance by the Chief Minister, the Minister has to resign from the office as per Section 14(2)(i) of the Act.

The Kerala High Court will consider his petition tomorrow, that is on, April 13.

CASE NAME: KT JALEEL V. VK MUHAMMED SHAFI.