Kochi, Apr 10 The Kerala High Court on Friday initiated civil contempt procedures against the Principal Secretary, Industries Department of the state government for repeatedly denying sanction to prosecute two former senior KSCDC officials in connection with a Rs 80 crore scam back in 2011.
Justice A Badharudeen held that the official -- Mohammed Hanish -- did not adhere to the directions of the court and "wilfully disobeyed" them while denying sanction to the CBI to prosecute K A Ratheesh, former Managing Director of KSCDC, and R Chandrasekharan, former Chairman of the corporation.
The court had in 2024 directed the government to grant sanction for prosecution of the two officials, but the same was not adhered to by the official who passed an order in October last year declining sanction.
The court in its 2024 judgement had set aside earlier government orders denying sanction to prosecute the two former officials of the Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation .
The court noted that the overall evaluation of the materials would show that the government was "very reluctant' to grant sanction even though the prosecution materials would substantiate, prima facie, commission of offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act by the accused involving a huge scam of Rs 80 crores in 2011.
"Thus, the inevitable conclusion of this court is that the respondent (official) herein, representing the government, did not adhere to the directions issued by this court ... and willfully disobeyed the direction and thereby, prima facie, committed the offence of civil contempt, as defined under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971," Justice Badharudeen said.
The court also observed that the government was hesitating to grant sanction "for reasons known to it" and its stand was "arbitary, against public interest and in gross violation of the findings" of the court in the 2024 judgement.
The court set aside the October 2025 government order denying sanction to prosecute the two former KSCDC officials and directed the principal secretary to reconsider the matter in line with the court's 2024 judgement and issue a fresh order on or before May 18.
It also directed the official to appear before it on May 18 in connection with the civil contempt proceedings.
The order was issued on the contempt plea moved by Kollam-resident Kadakampally Manoj.
It was on Manoj's plea that the High Court in 2015 had ordered a probe into the matter and handed over the investigation to the CBI.
The allegations against the two former KSCDC officials pertained to misuse of Rs 80 crore allotted for the procurement of raw cashew nuts.
