Kochi, Monday, July 27, 2009: The Kerala High court today dismissed a petition seeking contempt of court proceedings against 12 CPI(M) leaders, including General Secretary Prakash Karat, for allegedly making ‘prejudicial’ statements in a graft case in which Kerala party chief Pinarayi Vijayan is an accused.

Political parties are entitled to their views on political issues, Justice M Sashidharan Nambiar said, dismissing the petition by ‘Crime magazine Editor’ T P Nandakumar.

“Their statements do not tend to interfere in the administration of the justice. In a democratic system, all political parties can take such views,” the court held.

Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura Chief Ministers — V S Achuthanandan, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Manik Sarkar respectively, politburo members S Ramachandran Pillai, Pinarayi Vijayan and state ministers — Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Paloli Muhammedkutty, Thomas Issac, M A Baby, P K Sreemathi and P K Gurudasan are among CPI (M) leaders against whom contempt proceedings were sought to be initiated by the petitioner.

The petitioner claimed that with CBI submitting the ‘final report’ in the SNC Lavalin case, the matter was still in court but Karat had discussed the issue in recent party forums and stating that Vijayan was innocent.