THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress party filed a breach of privilege complaint against State Finance Minister P. Rajeev and CPI-M State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Monday, claiming that the current Lokayukta instructions are unconstitutional.

The Congress party has been criticising the government over Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's decision to issue an Ordinance altering the Lokayukta's essential powers while presiding over a cabinet meeting from his hospital bed in the United States earlier this month. A Congress team visited with Governor Arif Mohammed Khan a few days later and advised him that pressing forward with this severely regressive law would leave the Lokayukta powerless, and that he should not do so.

When the matter arose, Rajeev told the media that the Kerala High Court had declared that some provisions of the Lokayukta Bill, which was approved in 1999 by the then-Left government of E.K. Nayanar, were unconstitutional.

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