Notwithstanding the admission of Pillai's appeal and the suspension of the sentence by the Kerala High Court, this was the first ever conviction in independent India of a politician, whether in office or not, in a corruption case. The result would not have been possible but for the better case made out by official agencies of investigation and prosecution than in other instances where the charges have not stood in courts. Veteran Congress leader K. Karunakaran, by all accounts, may be up against a similar challenge, if the chargesheet filed against him in the vigilance court sets the due process of law in motion. But this can prove a big if,indeed.

As a former chief minister and a present member of the Lok Sabha, he cannot be prosecuted without the sanction of the Governor, the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Central government. Experience should warn against expecting the sanction as a matter of course.

The urgency of the need for the sanction not need be argued at length. The palmolein import controversy has dragged on only a little less long than the Pillai case in the court for eight years. Allegations of irregularities in the purchase of palm oil from a Malaysia-based firm in 1991, in wasteful addition to imports by the State Trading Corporation and at enhanced rates, entailing a Rs 2.82 crore loss, surfaced the next year and have been agitating the state off and on ever since.

Among those to agree about the irregularities in the deal have been the authors of the first official audit report on it, the Auditor and Comptroller-General of India and the state assembly's then Congress-headed Public Accounts Committee. The case for fullinvestigation into the affair and action against the culprits has been further strengthened by the allegations of involvement in it of the then food and civil supplies minister and three high-ranking bureaucrats -- the then chief secretary, the additional chief secretary and the chairman of the state's civil supplies corporation.

The strength of the case may not, however, suffice for the purpose of obtaining the sanction and ensuring the prosecution. Karunakaran may not be in power, but is not without a political clout, which he can be counted on to try and use.

This will be a test case for the Centre, which has promised measures to combat corruption in high places. All the more so for the open secret of a tacit understanding between the BJP and the Congress, particularly the Karunakaran faction, during the recent elections in Kerala as also of the subsequent partnership of the two parties in struggles against the Left Democratic Front-led state government. The previous BJP-led Centre did not cover itselfwith glory in its actions related to the corruption cases against AIADMK chief Jayalalitha chargesheeted after the necessary sanction. In Karunakaran's case, New Delhi has a point to prove.