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Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan. (Facebook)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah invoked his famous — and ridiculed — Aap Chronology Samajhiye barb as a defence against the allegations of snooping levelled at the Union government following the Pegasus spyware controversy in July 2021.
Two years later, another chronology is becoming clearer in Kerala.
Rewind to 19 April. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan organised a farewell party for the outgoing Chief Justice of Kerala S Manikumar at a posh private hotel in Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram. The hush-hush feast attended by a select few, triggered a controversy after the news media revealed it the next day.
Opposition leader VD Satheesan was not invited to the party, a first-of-a-kind farewell party a Kerala chief minister had hosted for a retiring judge. Neither were several leaders in the ruling front and many top bureaucrats.
The Opposition Congress viewed the party as a thanksgiving feast, saying Justice Manikumar had never antagonised the government in corruption cases against it. Citing a few cases, former home minister Ramesh Chennithala and many Opposition leaders said the judge had always adjourned cases critical to the government.
Chennithala also predicted that Justice Manikumar would be appointed as the chairman of the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC).
Justice Manikumar retired on 24 April. Four months later, the government decided to appoint him as the SHRC head. The chronology became clear as Chennithala’s prediction came true.
A three-member committee comprising the chief minister, Assembly Speaker AN Shamseer, and the Opposition leader Satheesan selected Justice Manikumar as the SHRC chairman. Satheesan, however, objected to the selection but was overruled by a majority of 2-1.
Responding to South First, Satheesan said the government ignored political propriety and arbitrarily decided on a retired judge of its choice with scant regard for basic human rights.
“No panel of candidates was placed before the selection committee to make an informed decision. The government presented a single name. The government’s action is anti-democratic, and arbitrary,” Satheesan alleged.
Chennithala said it would be anybody’s guess whether such a “partisan” retired chief justice would discharge his duty as SHRC chairman in a fair manner. He added that Justice Manikumar, till retirement, sat on all cases he had filed against the Vijayan government.
The government would now forward Justice Manikumar’s name to Governor Arif Mohammad Khan for his approval.
Interestingly, Vijayan’s party CPI(M) had a proclaimed policy of not awarding plum posts to retired judicial officers as it would contradict the fairness of criminal jurisprudence.
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