The Kerala High Court has deferred the personal appearance of Industries Principal Secretary A.P.M Mohammed Hanish till June 1 in a contempt plea filed regarding alleged denial of sanction for a CBI probe into the ₹600-crore cashew import scam.

The Single Bench hearing the contempt plea had directed Mr. Hanish’s personal appearance on May 22. He filed an appeal against this order before a Division Bench and on May 20 was directed to file an application before the Single Bench.

The contempt plea was filed by Kadakampally Manoj of Kollam. Previously, the court had quashed a government order denying sanction for a CBI probe into the alleged corruption in the import of raw cashew between 2006 and 2015 by the Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation (KSCDC).

The probe was to investigate the alleged role of R. Chandrasekharan, former Chairman, and P.A. Ratheesh, former managing director of the KSCDC, in the case.

The State government had denied sanction for CBI probe thrice and contended that the decision was not contempt of court, as the court directive was only to consider the sanction and not to approve it.