Waqf Amendment Act has no retrospective effect: Kerala HC
The court held there is no retrospective effect for the insertion of Section 52A in 2013 in the Waqf Act.
The Kerala High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition seeking a CBI probe against state cultural minister Saji Cherian for his alleged anti-constitutional speech.
Dismissing a petition filed by Baiju Noel, a lawyer in the high court, the court said that the demand for the CBI inquiry into Saji Cherian’s anti-constitution speech is immature at this stage. It directed the petitioner to approach the magistrate court against the police report.
The court further said that the magistrate court can be approached with a stay petition against the referral report of the investigation team.
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The referral report of the police says there was no evidence against Saji Cherian for his alleged anti-constitution speech. However, Biju, in his petition, argued that the police investigation was botched up to save the minister. “Not even the statements of the witnesses were recorded accurately,” Biju stated in his petition.
Earlier, the Kerala High Court had rejected a petition seeking disqualification of Cherian from the Assembly in view of his speech allegedly insulting the constitution. Petitioner Biju V Cheruman sought an order from the court declaring Cherian not entitled to hold the office of the legislator in view of his controversial speech.
A three-minute video clip of Saji Cherian addressing a CPI-M event at Mallappally in Pathanamthitta had gone viral. The video purportedly showed him saying the Constitution “condones exploitation” and is written in a way helping to “plunder” people of the nation.
“We all say that we have a beautifully written Constitution. But, I will say, the Constitution is written in such a way that it can be used to plunder the people of the country,” Saji Cheriyan said.
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