# Kerala HC allows pleas against cashew import scam prosecution sanction 2026-08-18T17:16:11+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet The Kerala High Court has allowed petitions by former Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation chairperson R. Chandrasekharan and former managing director K.A. Ratheesh challenging a court order that directed the state to reconsider sanction for their prosecution in a cashew import scam case. A Division Bench of Justices K. Natarajan and Johnson John found merit in their contention that they were not given a hearing before the earlier order was passed. A Single Bench had earlier directed the state to reconsider sanction while hearing a contempt petition filed by Kadakampally Manoj. The sanction to prosecute the two officials had been refused three times before it was granted to the Central Bureau of Investigation on July 6. The CBI had sought sanction in its investigation into alleged misappropriation in raw cashew imports by the corporation between 2006 and 2015. After the grant of sanction, the CBI informed the court that charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act had been added to the chargesheet, alongside earlier charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code. ## Indian Opinion Analysis The Hindu's report is a neutral, court-procedure account that leads with the High Court's decision to allow the petitions on procedural grounds. It emphasises that the petitioners were denied a hearing, which is the legal basis for the order. There is no government-critical or sensationalist framing, the piece simply tracks the judicial sequence. The key takeaway is that the legal battle is not over: the sanction has already been granted, but the procedural challenge has succeeded. Watch for the next hearing date, which will determine whether the prosecution proceeds or is stalled further. ## Coverage Coverage: 1 source, 1 neutral - thehindu.com (neutral report) Straight court-procedure reporting, no slant or editorialising. This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: CBI, Kerala High Court, KSCDC, Prevention of Corruption Act, R. Chandrasekharan Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/kerala-hc-allows-pleas-against-cashew-import-scam-prosecution-sanction/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/kerala-hc-allows-pleas-against-cashew-import-scam-prosecution-sanction/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/