Kochi, 12 Oct (H.S.):The Kerala High Court on Monday directed Pinarayi Vijayan and other appellants to rectify technical defects in their appeals challenging the order to register Vigilance cases in the CMRL–Exalogic matter.

The division bench deferred consideration of the appeals until 4 p.m. after identifying procedural shortcomings. The appellants sought to overturn the October 9 single-bench judgment and stay the FIR registration order and subsequent proceedings pending a final decision on their appeals.

Opposing the appeals, the state government argued that they were not maintainable and informed the court that FIRs had already been registered in compliance with the single-bench directive.

The bench questioned whether accused persons needed to be heard before a case was registered. It observed that the relevant consideration was whether the information disclosed grounds for registering an FIR, rather than who supplied it.

Four sets of appeals have been filed. Vijayan contended that the single bench issued its judgment without allowing him to present his arguments, violating natural justice. His appeal also maintained that the matter had previously been examined and rejected by the Vigilance court in Thiruvananthapuram, the High Court and the Supreme Court.

Former Advocate General Gopalakrishna Kurup appeared for Vijayan.

Meanwhile, Vigilance Special Investigation Unit-I registered two FIRs following the High Court directive concerning information supplied by the Enforcement Directorate.

Vijayan is the first accused in the corruption case, which names seven accused. His daughter and Exalogic owner T. Veena figures in both cases. Her husband, former minister P.A. Mohammed Riyas, is the first accused in the second case, concerning alleged hawala and illicit financial transactions, which names eight accused.

The ED alleged that Veena improperly received Rs 3.28 crore from CMRL, had approximately Rs 20 crore in unexplained income and was involved in hawala transactions. These allegations remain subject to investigation and adjudication.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Arun Lakshman