Coming down heavily on the state Environment Department, the Kerala High Court on a suo motu case impleaded James Varghese, Principal Secretary of the Environment Department, and directed him to show cause as to why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against him for cancelling a government order censuring G Jayaprakash, former chairman of the State Pollution Control Board.
Justice Antony Dominic passed the order while considering a petition filed by Jayaprakash seeking a directive to allow him to continue as chairman.He was censured for failing to give an inspection report regarding a crusher unit functioning in Thrissur.
In its order, the court pointed out that a Division Bench had earlier dismissed his writ petition and appeals challenging the censure order. Although the petitioner filed a special leave petition before the apex court, leave was granted only on the limited question of correctness of the direction issued by the Bench requiring the respondents to register an FIR against the petitioner. In other words, the judgment of the High Court had attained finality, the court said.