Even as the state government ordered a judicial probe into the solar scam, most of the crucial recommendations by the inquiry commissions have been completely ignored by the various governments so far, paving the way for repeating similar incidents later. Though the governments have sought the service of a sitting judge in the past also, it was denied on most occasions.
Out of the eighty seven judicial commissions constituted in the state after 1980 under the Commission of Inquiries Act, only four were headed by sitting judges of the High Court. While three of them were from the state, one was from outside the state.
Justice M P Menon, who inquired into the fake university mark list cases, Justice K Sukumaran, who inquired into the allegations related to the Idamalayar and Kallada dam construction contracts, and Justice G Sasidharan, who probed the allegation against Neelalohithadasan Nadar, were those from the Kerala High court. “The recommendations of most of the past inquiry commissions were not taken seriously”, said Justice K Narayana Kurup, who headed the inquiry commission into the Kumarakom tragedy that killed 27 people. He added that the boat tragedy in Thekkady that killed 42 people in 2009 could have been averted if the governments had implemented his recommendations. He had recommended measures like appointing a water transport safety commissioner, a competent authority to look into all the safety aspects.
Conditions that led to the Poonthura riots of 1992 were similar to the Cheriyathura firing which happened after 17 years, and can be attributed to laxity on the part of the various governments to implement the recommendations of the Aravindaksha Menon Commission which probed the Poonthura riots. The Vizhinjam riot, which claimed two lives in clashes between two sections over a piece of land, came soon after the Poonthura riot settled. R Gopalakrishna Pillai, who was appointed as Commission to probe the incident, had recommended a set of measures to avert tension in the coastal belt, and most of them were ignored.
The fate of various recommendations of the Thomas P Joseph inquiry commission on the Marad riots, to instill communal harmony in the coastal belt, is also not different. Various governments had decided to wind up inquiry commissions before submitting reports. The government in 2002 decided to wind up the G Sasidharan commission probe and the present government had decided to wind up the M A Nissar commission probing the Kasargod firing.