03/012/2011 (Daily Pioneer) - The Kerala High Court on Friday declared null and void the observations made by the Special Vigilance Court in Thiruvananthapuram against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on August 8 while ordering a re-investigation into the two-decade-old palm oil import scam.

On a petition filed by senior bureaucrat Jiji Thomason, fifth accused in the case, seeking orders for early completion of the investigation, Justice KT Sankaran directed the Vigilance to conclude the probe and submit its report in the Thiruvananthapuram court within six weeks. The court also ordered that the palm oil import case should be settled without further delay.

The judge invalidated three paragraphs in the observations made by the Special Vigilance Court as the ground for the need of a probe into Chandy’s role in the scam as he was finance minister when the controversial import of palm oil had taken place. Vigilance Judge PK Haneefa had recused himself from the case after criticisms were leveled against him over this order.

Chandy received another shot in the arm on Friday with the High Court dismissing a petition filed by VS Achuthanandan, Opposition leader in the Kerala Assembly, for impleading in the case. It also rejected the pleas by the All India Lawyers’ Union and former bureaucrat and ex-MLA Alphonse Kannanthanam seeking permission for impleading.

IAS official Jiji Thomason, who was managing director of the Kerala State Civil supplies Corporation (SupplyCo) when the import took place, had filed his petition in the High Court on September 22 seeking orders to conclude the probe quickly as the long delay was affecting his chances of promotion.

Thomson had earlier sought his discharge from the case, which had cost PJ Thomas his job as Chief Vigilance Commissioner. Apart from Jiji Thomson and Thomas, former food minister TH Musthaffa of the Congress, former chief secretary S Padmakumar and former additional chief secretary Zacharia Mathew were also accused in the case.

The case pertains to the import of 15,000 tons of palm oil through Malaysian company Power and Energy Private Limited by the Kerala Government of later K Karunakaran in 1992 at inflated rates for distribution through the public distribution network. The import was allegedly in violation of the guidelines of the State Trading Corporation.

The accused were charged with criminal conspiracy with the company for the import of palm oil at the rate of $405 per ton while the prevailing market price was $392.25 per ton. The deal had allegedly caused a loss of Rs 2.8 crore to the Exchequer. But the Congress party had consistently maintained that the State had actually benefited from the import.

The sensational case had become lively once again in September last after Special Vigilance judge Haneefa rejected the Vigilance report that gave a clean chit to Chandy and asked it to conduct further probe against him and submit report in three months.

Government chief whip PC George then wrote to the President and chief justices of both the Supreme Court and the Kerala High Court saying that Judge Haneefa’s action was against the laws of the country. The judge recused himself from the case following this. The High Court then asked the Vigilance court in Thrissur to take over the case.