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HC drops contempt plea against Chief Secy.

By Our Staff Reporter

Kochi March 26. A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday dropped a contempt of court case pending against the Chief Secretary, N. Chandrasekharan Nair, and two other officers in connection with the M.Pharm. admission case. The Bench also expunged the adverse remarks made against the Additional Advocate General and some Government pleaders by a single judge.

The judgment was delivered by the Bench comprising Justice Cyriac Joseph and Justice A. K. Basheer. The single judge, while criticising the law officers for not providing proper advice, had opined that a prima facie case of contempt of court had been made out against the respondents.

The Bench said it did not find any justification for the observations made by the single judge in the reference order against the Government pleaders and the Additional Advocate General who appeared in the case. When the respondents had not committed any contempt of court, the law officers could not be stated to have attempted to protect the contemners. There was no basis for the observation that instead of giving proper advice to the contemners subject to law, the law officers had ventured upon to circumvent the due process of law.

The Bench pointed out that when the law officers found that the single judge was not satisfied with the explanation offered by Mr. Chandrasekharan Nair, they had advised the Controller to cancel the admission and the fact was brought to the notice of the court. Under such circumstances, it was ``uncharitable'' to allege that the Additional Advocate General and the Government pleaders had tried to protect the contemners. The attitude of the law officers did not deserve any ``condemnation or criticism''.

The contempt petition was filed by Joseph Shaju of Thiruvananthapuram. According to him, Mr. Chandrasekharan Nair, the then Secretary, Health and Family Welfare and Director of Medical Education, and the Controller of Entrance Examinations had violated a court directive not to admit student to the M.Pharm. Pharmacy Practice course in 2001.

The Bench pointed out that the court had only directed that the selection and finalization of list of candidates would be subject to further orders from the court. The effect of the court's order, according to the Bench, was that the respondents could conduct the interview, make selection and finalise the candidates for the course, but it would be subject to further order of the court. Therefore, in the absence of any prohibition, the respondents had not violated the court order issued in November, 2001. In fact, the affidavit filed by the respondents had offered satisfactory explanation and no further action was called for in the matter.

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