The Kerala High Court will on Tuesday hear a petition filed by former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy seeking to quash a judicial commission’s report on the multi-crore-rupee solar scam case, The Hindu reported.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had tabled the report in the state Assembly on November 9. Chandy filed the petition on Monday, but Justice Shaji P Chaly recused himself from hearing the case on that day.

“Yes, I have approached the high court to get it [the report] quashed as there have been violations in the manner in which it [the judicial commission] went about the probe,” Chandy told IANS.

In his petition, Chandy said the commission had relied on a 25-page letter allegedly written by accused Saritha Nair, but it did not examine the letter’s authenticity. The commission’s observations had caused “serious injuries on his reputation and violated the right to privacy”, he said, adding that it was full of “illegality and political motives”.

Solar panel scam case

The two accused in the scam, Biju Radhakrishnan and his partner Saritha Nair, allegedly duped investors of lakhs of rupees after promising to install solar panels for them. However, once they received the money, they would disappear. They were arrested in October 2013 and sentenced to three years in jail on December 16, 2016.

Chandy and other Congress ministers were accused of taking large amounts of money and sexual favours as part of the scam. In his defence, Chandy had claimed that the liquor lobby had started this as a conspiracy against him after the state decided to close bars in Kerala.

After the Opposition put pressure on the government, Chandy, then the chief minister, set up the commission, led by retired Justice G Sivarajan, to investigate the allegations.

The report had found that Chandy and his staff provided all help to Saritha Nair and her company to dupe investors, and took sexual favours.