Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 13 (IANS) The Supreme Court Tuesday declined to entertain former Kerala chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan’s plea challenging the release of former state minister R. Balakrishna Pillai on remission of sentence in a graft case.

The apex court bench of Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice B.S. Chauhan permitted senior counsel Gopal Subramanium, appearing for Achuthanandan, to withdraw the petition and move the Kerala High Court for an appropriate remedy.

Achuthanandan moved the apex court challenging the Kerala government’s order granting remission to Pillai and another 2,069 other prisoners Oct 24. They were freed Nov 1 on the occasion of Kerala formation day.

Subramanium told the court that the only question that could be gone into by the court was whether after the highest court had convicted a person and awarded sentence, the state government could be seen minimising the effect of the judgment.

Justice Sathasivam said that “the state government had the powers under article 161 of the constitution to grant remission”.

“Once the court renders a judgment it is not possible for this court to monitor the implementation of the judgment. The constitutional authorities are expected to implement the judicial order,” said Justice Sathasivam.

The court told Subramanium that if his client had any grievance or that the provisions of jail manual had been violated then it was a separate cause of action and he could move the high court for remedy.

“It is not for this court to go into it,” the court observed.

Achuthanandan alleged that during 93 days when Pillai was in jail he was speaking to people outside from his mobile phone which was not permitted under the jail manual.

In February, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of the former minister in a corruption case and sentenced him to one-year imprisonment.

Pillai was convicted for corruption in awarding contracts for supply of equipment for a power project.