Kerala High Court, KT Jaleel | Photo: Mathrubhumi
Kochi: Officials including former minister KT Jaleel’s private secretary K Sharaffuddhin was at the Kerala High Court on Tuesday to hear the verdict on the writ petition filed by the former against the Lokayukta report.
While the lawyers were arguing whether the petition should be received on file, the judge asked, “Is he still in office?” Though it was explained that the petition was filed as a minister, the danger in the question was soon conveyed to the minister who was at Thiruvananthapuram.
Jaleel immediately handed over his resignation to the Chief Minister. The news of the resignation came while the arguments were progressing in court. However, the court couldn’t be informed of it.
The HC postponed the verdict on the petition by Jaleel that demanded a stay on the Lokayukta report that stated Jaleel was not eligible to continue as minister as he violated oath.
If the petition was rejected by the court, there would have been allegations that the resignation was submitted over it. The immediate move was to avoid it.
The HC division bench including Justice PB Sureshkumar and Justice K Babu heard the arguments for over 1.5 hours. The court didn’t accept Jaleel’s demand for an interim stay on the Lokayukta report.
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