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 filed by HRDS Secretary Aji Krishnan seeking investigation against political leaders, including state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family in the sensational Kerala gold smuggling case.
A single bench of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas dismissed the petition observing that there is no basis for the argument that the investigation is not being conducted properly by the Central agencies.
The court pointed out that the petitioner had not adduced any evidence to show that the investigation is not being conducted properly.
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Stating that the division bench had earlier decided similar petitions, the court said the petitioner did not present any new evidence to order a re-investigation of the matter already decided by the court. It observed that the investigation by Central agencies, the Customs and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is in the right direction.
Observing that there is no reason to fear that if the higher-ups are found guilty during the investigation, they will not be investigated, the court said, “No matter how high you are, the law is above you.”
Aji Krishnan, in his petition, had demanded that the Enforcement Directorate(ED) and the Customs should conduct a thorough investigation against political leaders, including Pinarayi Vijayan and his family in the wake of recent revelations by Swapna Suresh, the prime accused in the gold smuggling case.
The petitioner had argued that the statement given by Swapna to Customs, the matters written in Swapna’s biography and the allegations made by her in various press conferences all point to the role of political leaders including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family and former Speaker Sri Ramakrishnan in the gold smuggling case.
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