Thiruvananthapuram: The additional district court here has rejected the interim application of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy seeking to stop Opposition Leader V.S. Achuthanandan’s public statements against him. Vacation judge A. Badharudeen rejected the petition filed as an interim application to the defamation case.
The judge handed over the main petition to the trial court which would hear it after the elections. The court pointed out that restricting the Opposition Leader from making statements was an infringement on his rights. It was the duty of the Opposition Leader to point out the omissions of the state government.
The court also pointed out that the plea for putting an end to the statements of the Opposition Leader against the Chief Minister was not part of the original plea. The court made it clear that both parties can submit evidence on the defamation case in the trial court. The allegations made in the defamation case were left to be debated in the trial court.
“This court never observed that the allegations are either true or false,” the judge pointed out. The counsel for the Opposition Leader, Cherunniyoor Sasidharan Nair, argued while hearing the supplementary petition that Mr Achuthanandan had not specifically stated that Mr Chandy was an accused in any criminal cases or that an FIR was registered against Mr Chandy.
The Opposition Leader was referring to the petitions in the Lok Ayuktha and Vigilance. The counsel also submitted answers given to the RTI queries
to substantiate his argument. District government pleader A. Santhosh Kumar appeared for Mr Chandy as a private counsel in the case.
Mr Chandy had submitted the defamation suit against Mr Achuthanandan on April 28 before the vacation court demanding a compensation of Rs 1 lakh for false allegations made during a campaign rally that the former faced as many as 31 corruption cases.
The next day the counsel of Mr Chandy submitted an interim application before First Additional Sessions Judge K.P. Indira, who was holding charge of the vacation court then, seeking to restrain the Opposition Leader. Mr Chandy however, dismissed the reports that the judgment was against him. He told reporters in Kottayam that the counsel of the Opposition Leader had contradicted the statement made by him (VS).
