The High Court Division Bench, on Thursday, dismissed appeals filed by former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Veena T and MLA Mohammad Riyas against the single bench order which directed the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) to register FIRs against them. The VACB has already filed two FIRs under the Prevention of Corruption Act and constituted two Special Investigation Teams.

The Division Bench comprising Justice K Natarajan and Justice Johnson John, issued the order based on petitions filed by Pinarayi Vijayan, Veena T and MLA Mohammad Riyas. A detailed order is awaited.

Earlier during the hearing on the appeals, the petitioners' counsel cited that they were not heard by the Single Bench before the judgement was passed. It was also argued that the writ petition filed by Shahjahan was a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and as per the roster of the High Court, the hearing of the PIL rests with the Division Bench and hence the judgement on filing the FIR was a nullity and should be set aside. According to the counsel, the manner in which the judgement was passed without hearing the parties accounted for denial of natural justice.

The ED, however, said that the accused parties have no right to be heard. The Advocate General, said that the government has obeyed the Single Bench's order and FIRs have already been registered.

Justice A Badharudeen had directed the state government to register an FIR in the CMRL-Exalogic case based on information provided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). It also termed as illegal the decision to conduct a preliminary inquiry through a special team constituted by the State Police Chief and directed the Director of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) to immediately register an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act based on the information shared by the ED under Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).