The editor of Deepika, a Malayalam daily newspaper, tendered an unconditional apology before the Kerala High Court on Thursday for an erroneous report on a court order [Shaji J Kodankandath v State of Kerala & Ors.]..A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Syam Kumar VM had last week sought an explanation from the newspaper after it published a report stating that the Court had directed a probe into alleged irregularities in the purchase of equipment for a State-wide digital land re-survey project. The Court had passed no such order. Today, the editor of the daily appeared in person before the Bench and apologised for the report. It was submitted that the report was based on a press release issued by the petitioner in the case as well as a press meet conducted by him. The newspaper did not cross check with the actual court order and published the report based on the press release. The editor told the court that steps are being taken to publish a correction for the same. The Bench accepted the apology and recorded the editor's submission regarding publishing the correction.However, the Bench took a dim view of the petitioner's conduct. The petitioner also submitted an affidavit today but he did not attach the press release in question. The Bench opined that the petitioner, who is himself a lawyer, was deliberately trying to obfuscate the matter. "The petitioner himself is a lawyer. He should have at least attached the press release to his affidavit. He has purposefully avoided it. And the affidavit has been drafted in a very clever way," Justice Kumar orally remarked. "We will dismiss this. You (the petitioner) are misquoting the order of the court deliberately," Chief Justice Sen warned. The Bench ultimately accepted an undertaking given by the counsel for the petitioner that the petitioner would publish an apology in for misrepresenting the Court's order. The apology will also be published in Deepika. .These developments arose in a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Shaji J Kodankandath alleging that there was corruption involved in the purchase and tender allocation of equipment to be used for conducting a digital re-survey of villages in Kerala.The project reportedly aims to survey around 1,550 villages across Kerala in phases at a cost running into several hundred crores, with a significant portion earmarked for equipment procurement.Kodankandath sought directions for a detailed probe into the tender.On February 19, the Court sought details from the vigilance authorities regarding the steps taken on a complaint that was already pending in the matter.However, the newspaper report under scrutiny mistakenly suggested that it was the Court which ordered the vigilance probe..The Court took note of the newspaper report after CPI(M) MLA and Revenue Minister K Rajan flagged it in a complaint dated March 13, sent to the Court's Registrar General.The complaint referred to statements allegedly made by Kodankandath in a press conference.These comments were then allegedly reported by Deepika under the headline, "ഡിജിറ്റൽ സർവ്വേ ഉപകരണങ്ങൾ വാങ്ങിയതിൽ അന്വേഷിക്കണമെന്ന് ഹൈക്കോടതി" (translation: High Court directed to conduct enquiry regarding the purchase of digital survey equipment)..The Court recorded an undertaking that Kodankandath would publish an apology in the same newspaper. .The petitioner was represented by advocates KB Ganesh, Smitha Chathanarambath, Harisankar KV and Athira A Menon. Special Government Pleader S Renjith appeared for the State.
