Cashew department Secretary K. Biju has filed an unconditional apology before the Kerala High Court for allegedly including accusatory remarks against the judiciary in a government order.
The order granted sanction for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute two former officials in the Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation for the alleged misappropriation in the import of raw cashew between 2006 and 2015.
In his affidavit, Mr. Biju admitted that on July 2, he had issued the order without “the degree of care, deliberation and application of mind” that he should have exercised. He accepted full responsibility for the impugned observations which were made in the order. He also stated that immediately after the Advocate General pointed out that the language used in the order may be regarded as contempt, the said order was withdrawn and a fresh one was issued deleting the allegedly offensive portions.
The new order, issued on July 6, carefully examined the matter of granting sanction, with proper application of mind, clearly identifying that a prima facie case is made out against the first and third accused, INTUC State president and former KSCDC chairperson R. Chandrasekharan and former managing director K.A. Ratheesh.
The affidavit was filed in a contempt of court petition by Kadakampally Manoj of Kollam, lodged after the State refused to grant sanction to prosecute, allegedly without considering the material evidence produced by the CBI as directed in a previous High Court order. Pointing out the observations made by Mr. Biju in the order of July 2, the petitioner had earlier filed an application to initiate contempt proceedings against the official.
Justice A. Badharudeen had found that these observations were evidently contemptuous, and had asked Mr. Biju to explain his actions after initiating contempt proceedings against the official.
The apology affidavit will be considered by the court on July 15.
Published – July 14, 2026 06:09 pm IST
