27 Jul 2009, 1826 hrs IST

KOCHI, Kerala: The Kerala High court today dismissed a petition seeking contempt of court proceedings against 12 CPI (M) leaders, including General Secretary Prakash Karat, for allegedly making 'prejudicial' statements in a graft case in which party chief Pinarayi Vijayan is an accused.

Political parties are entitled to their views on political issues, Justice M Sashidharan Nambiar said, dismissing the petition by Crime magazine Editor T P Nanda Kumar.

"Their statements do not tend to interfere in the administration of the justice. In a democratic system, all political parties can take such views," the court held.

Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura Chief Ministers-- V S Achuthanandan, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Manik Sarkar respectively, politburo members S Ramachandran Pillai, Pinarayi Vijayan and state ministers-- Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Paloli Muhammed Kutty, Thomas Isaac, M A Baby, P K Sreemathi and P K Gurudasan are among the CPI (M) leaders against whom contempt proceedings were sought to be initiated by the petitioner.

The CBI court had earlier dismissed the petition saying prima facie it was not maintainable.

The petitioner claimed that with CBI submitting the 'final report' in the SNC Lavalin case, the matter was still in court but Karat had discussed the issue in recent party forums and stating that Vijayan was innocent.

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