Overview
- On Monday June 22 the former industries principal secretary, Mohammed Hanish, appeared before the Kerala High Court and filed an affidavit tendering an unconditional apology in the contempt proceedings.
- The contempt action grew from a single-judge order on April 10 that set aside Hanish’s denials of sanction to prosecute and found prima facie contempt, an order whose appeal was later dismissed by a division bench.
- The court had earlier warned Hanish that failure to appear could lead to coercive steps, including an arrest warrant, and pressed him to explain why he had not followed repeated judicial directions.
- Justice A. Badharudeen has posted the contempt matter for further consideration on July 2 and has directed the current officer in charge, K. Biju IAS, to pass a prosecution sanction by July 9.
- The underlying dispute stems from a 2015 CBI probe into alleged KSCDC irregularities involving about Rs 600 crore in raw cashew procurement and naming figures such as R. Chandrasekharan as accused, and prosecution requires state sanction to proceed.