Supreme Court Dismisses Congress MP Adoor Prakash's Challenge To Kerala HC Condoning Delay In State's Revision Against His Discharge

The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed Lok Sabha MP and former Kerala Minister Adoor Prakash's challenge to a Kerala High Court order which condoned the delay of 225 days in state's filing of a criminal revision petition against the order discharging him in a corruption case. 

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi passed the order, after hearing Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal (for petitioners). Without expressing anything on the merits, the bench said that it found no reason to exercise its jurisdiction under Article 136 of the Constitution.

The plea, filed by Adoor Prakash and his former Private Secretary, averred that the High Court condoned a delay of 467 days in filing of the appeal by the state without assigning any reasons. It was the petitioners' contention that since the "inordinate delay" had not been sufficiently explained by the state, the High Court ought not to have condoned the delay taking a liberal view.

To recap, the State had moved the High Court seeking condonation of delay in filing of the criminal revision petition against a 2021 order of the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge, Kozhikode. This order discharged the petitioners in a case registered under Sections 7/12/15 read with 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120B of IPC, holding that there were no grounds to proceed.

The case was registered on the basis of a private complaint alleging corruption and malpractices in allotting of Authorized Wholesale Depot (AWD) at various Kerala districts.

While condoning the delay, the High Court noted that Section 5 of the Limitation Act has to be construed liberally in order to do substantive justice. At the same time, the Court has to look if there was sufficient cause behind the delay. It also observed that connected criminal revisions were already before the Court.

"In order to consider the grievance of the prosecution in the matter of discharge, it is necessary, in the interest of justice, to condone the delay and permit the revision petitioner to argue the matter on merits", the Court concluded.

Aggrieved by the High Court order, the petitioners filed the present petition, claiming violation of their rights under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. They submitted that the criminal revision petition was an "abuse of process" intended to "wreak vengeance" for political reasons. The idea was to protract the allegations which were raised back in 2006, they said.

Case Title: ADOOR PRAKASH AND ANR. Versus STATE OF KERALA, SLP(Crl) No. 14677/2025

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