As the appointment of new CVC P.J. Thomas has become a source of embarrassment to the UPA government, the Left Front administration in Kerala on Thursday moved a fresh petition in the Supreme Court seeking vacation of stay on the trial against former chief minister K. Karunakaran and other co-accused, including Thomas in decades-old Palmolein oil import scam.
Mr Thomas’ appointment as the CVC has been challenged in the apex court as his name figured in the chargesheet of the 1991 Palmolein scam case filed in the CBI special court in Thiruvananthapuram in 2000, but the trial had since been hanging fire as the mandatory sanction had not come from the competent authorities for the prosecution of the public servants.
Besides, Mr Thomas is being accused of the “cover-up” in of the 2G spectrum scam as the telecom secretary. The apex court had stayed the trial in the Palmolein scam case by an interim order passed on August 3, 2007 on a petition by Karunakaran, who was the chief minister when the Kerala government had imported 15,000 tonnes of oil at a rate of $405 per tonne, which allegedly was higher than prevailing market price of $392 per tonne.
The stay was granted by the apex court after Karunakaran had challenged the Kerala high court order permitting the CBI to go ahead with the trial in the case dismissing his plea on the issue of sanction.
Seeking early hearing by the apex court on pending petition of Karunakaran, the Left Front government counsel R. Satish in the fresh application has narrated the sequence of previous scheduled dates, saying since July 2010 the case has not put up in the roster of the apex court for regular hearing. The “delay” in deciding the SLP of Karunakaran was causing further delaying the trial.