Thiruvananthapuram: With the battle lines firmly drawn between Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the former showing no signs of backing down, Vijayan has now approached the best legal brains in the country including Fali S. Nariman for advice on if there is a legal solution to their tussle.
Even as the state is passing through one of its worst-ever financial crisis, a sum of Rs 46.90 lakh has been sanctioned for Nariman and his team.
The Government Order, that has now found its way to the public domain, says this is the professional fee for providing written legal opinion with regards to Kerala legislative bills.
Vijayan appears to be in the corner after veiled threats launched by him and his CPI-M leaders that “this is Kerala” and Khan should “behave”, the Governor appears firm on his stand.
The reason why Vijayan decided to approach Nariman is to see if there is a legal way out to see Khan signs on the dotted line on a few Bills he is sitting upon.
These include the tweaked Lok Ayukta Bill and also a Bill which amends the powers of the Chancellor – a post held by the Kerala Governor for a while.
Vijayan is seeking to find if there is any way in which the state can approach the judiciary to see Khan provides assent to these Bills, which are crucial for the chief Minister.
Khan, for a while, has not been quiet and recently was in threatening mode when he warned that if the Chief Minister’s Office is involved in gold smuggling, he will intervene and it’s after this that Vijayan seemed to have started to think on taking on Khan in the legal way.
Khan was travelling for the past 10 days and has returned to the state on Saturday. Meanwhile, the last date for the 10 state varsity Vice Chancellors, whom he had ordered to quit, to reply to his show cause notice or in case, any of them wishes to meet him, is Monday, after which he is expected to take a position, as he is now armed with an apex court order which asked the Vice Chancellor of the A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technological University of Kerala to quit as appointment norms were not followed.
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