Judge excuses himself from hearing Jiji plea

KOCHI: Justice N K Balakrishnan on Friday avoided himself from the hearing of the petition filed by senior IAS officer Jiji Thomson seeking to quash a Vigilance Special court order in the palmolein deal.The matter will come up before another Bench, which will be decided by the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court later.Jiji Thomson, the fifth accused in the case alleged that the Vigilance Court went wrong in suo motu directing to conduct further investigation in the case.  The investigating agency carried out a full- fledged further investigation and submitted report on May 13 stating that they are not able to find any fresh material in the case. On August 8, Special Vigilance Judge P K Haneefa had directed to inquire against Chandy after rejecting the investigators report. He contended that under Section 173(8) of the Criminal Procedure Code, the court had no power to suo motu order further investigation in the case.