New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Wednesday the pleas filed by former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family members challenging a Kerala High Court order rejecting their applications to appeal against a direction to register an FIR in the alleged Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) bribery case.

According to the Supreme Court website, a special bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana will take up the petitions during the court's Dussehra vacation. On October 15, the Kerala High Court rejected the applications filed by Vijayan, his daughter Veena T and her husband P A Mohamed Riyas seeking permission to appeal against a single judge's October 9 order directing the registration of an FIR in the case.

The high court had held that "an accused in a corruption case has no legal right to be heard before registering the FIR". Vijayan, Veena and Riyas had contended that the single judge had issued the direction without hearing them. They also argued that the petition in which the order was passed was in the nature of a public interest litigation (PIL) and should therefore have been heard by a division bench dealing with PILs.

The appeals were filed after the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau's Special Investigation Unit-1 registered two FIRs against Vijayan and his family members in connection with the alleged bribery case. On October 9, the Kerala High Court directed the agency to register a case based on a report submitted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to the state police. The ED had sought the registration of a case based on evidence gathered during its investigation and searches conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The agency has alleged that CMRL made fraudulent payments of ₹2.78 crore to Veena's now-defunct company, Exalogic Solutions, under the guise of IT consultancy services.