The Kerala High Court on Wednesday ordered a two-month status quo in proceedings on the charge sheet filed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd–Exalogic case, which names Veena Vijayan as an accused.
A single bench of Justice TR Ravi issued the status quo order in a petition filed by CMRL challenging the Ernakulam Additional District and Sessions court –VII order taking cognizance of the prosecution complaint(charge sheet ).
Advertisement
“Additional Solicitor General (ASG) takes notice for the first respondent. Issue notice to respondents 2 to 12. The ASG shall place on record their counter affidavit. Since a fundamental question regarding the taking of cognizance has been raised, and since issues concerning the applicability of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC) and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) have been put in question, there will be a direction to the respondents to maintain status quo as on today, for a period of two months,” the court ordered.
The CMRL challenged the Additional District and Sessions court –VII order on the ground that they were not given an opportunity for pre-cognizance hearing under Section 223(1) of BNSS. It is their case that since SFIO complaint was filed in March-April, 2025, BNSS is applicable.
Additional Solicitor General ARL Sundaresan, appearing for the Respondent-authorities, argued that since investigation was pending when BNSS came into force on July 1, 2024, provisions of CrPC will continue to apply.
The Additional District and Sessions court –VII, which took cognizance of the prosecution complaint, holds that the SFIO report was not a ‘complaint’ but a police report under Section 173 of CrPC.
The CMRL argued that it is discernible from Sections 212(6) and Section 436(2) of the Companies Act that the report submitted by the SFIO is to be considered as a ‘complaint’.
The High Court’s order pauses the issuance of summons based on the prosecution complaint filed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), granting temporary relief to the accused, including Veena Vijayan, daughter of the Kerala Chief Minister.
