THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala has spent Rs 6 crore for seven judicial commissions in the last six years despite severe financial constraints. Two of the commissions appointed by the LDF government after coming to power in 2016 are yet to submit their findings.
According to a reply given by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the Assembly, the appointment of seven judicial commissions set the state back by Rs 6.01 crore. Interestingly, the costliest commission among the seven is the Justice P A Mohammed Commission, which was appointed in 2016 to probe the incidents that led to lathi charging after the lawyers allegedly attacked the journalists in front of the High Court. An amount of Rs 2.77 crore was spent on Mohammed Commission.
CM said Justice C N Ramachandran Nair Judicial Commission and Justice V K Mohan Judicial Commission are yet to file their reports. Ramachandran Nair Commission was formed in 2020 to formulate rules and regulations regarding purchases in the police department. The government had appointed the commission after the Comptroller and Auditor General found irregularities in the purchases made by the police department when Loknath Behera was the police chief. The government has so far spent Rs 12.26 lakh on the three-member commission.
The Mohanan Commission was appointed in 2021 amid raging controversies over the case about smuggling of gold through diplomatic channels. The government had constituted the commission to probe whether the central agencies that investigated the case tried to falsely implicate the CM and other ministers in the case. The government has spent Rs 83 lakh on this commission, whose tenure was given a six months extension from May 7, 2022.
P S Gopinathan Commission (Puttingal fire, `1.07 crore), P A Antony Commission (honey trapping by a news channel, Rs 25 lakh), K Narayanakurup Commission (Nedumkandam custodial death, Rs 92 lakh) and P K Haneefa Commission (Walayar Pocso case, `one lakh) were the other four judicial commissions appointed by the government.