VS case against former minister lost in translation

The Supreme Court is caught between a chief minister who wants speedy justice in a high-profile corruption case and his own government lost in translation.

In 2006,Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan approached the SC for justice against former power minister R Balakrishna Pillai,who was acquitted in a corruption case. Four years later,the case remains a non-starter.

In December 2009,Achuthanandan had again returned to the SC,pleading for an out-of-turn hearing of the case as it dealt with corruption at a high position.

The state government,on the other hand,says the delay is because there are six boxes of trial court documents,spanning over 50,000 pages,waiting to be translated to English from Malayalam.

A July 2,2010 letter by Kerala government counsel P V Dinesh addressed to the SC Registry describes his own struggle with the documents: The counsel for the State of Kerala inspected six boxes containing around 50,000 pages. The inspection itself took sufficient time.

To the states credit,it claims to have completed the herculean task of translating depositions made by 130 witnesses to English. The translations have been filed with the court,says Dinesh.

The case pertains to Achuthanandans challenge of the Kerala HC decision in 2003 to quash corruption charges against Pillai,who was held guilty along with two others by the trial court for irregularities committed in the construction of a hydro-electric project at Idamalyar in 1999.

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Pillai,former Electricity Board chairman Ramabhadran Nair,and a contractor were sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment by a Vigilance Court in Kerala. In his plea before the SC last year,Achuthanandan pointed out that the public would lose faith in the judiciary if a decision on the case is delayed anymore. Besides,he said Pillai was over 86 years old,and a further delay would sabotage the case.

But translating the documents is not enough; the 5,000 pages have to be first photocopied. Dinesh says the documents,still with the SC Registry,is being photocopied. Though the court had issued notices to all parties,the case continued to be adjourned since December 2009 when the SC decided to favour the CMs request for early hearing.

We can fight the case even tomorrow,but without the necessary papers we cannot prepare for the case and chances are that we might lose the fight. Then nobody should blame us, Dinesh said in a bid to defend the government.

He,however,says in his letter to the SC that the state would take another four to five months to prepare for the case even after finally receiving the documents.