The petition of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy seeking exemption from personal appearance has been allowed for hearing by the CBI special court here on Friday.
The CBI court judge B.R. Madhusudan Rao directed the court registry to allot number to the petition and post it for hearing next week. When senior lawyer from Telangana High Court S. Niranjan Reddy sought hearing of the petition, the judge sought to know how was it maintainable since it was dismissed earlier.
Earlier, Mr. Reddy filed a similar petition twice when he was the main opposition leader in AP Assembly. After the trial court dismissed the petition, he moved the then Hyderabad High Court. Justice M. Satyanarayana Murthy of the High Court too dismissed the petition in 2017. His counsel then argued that Mr. Reddy has to tour the State and meet people to listen to their grievances.
The judge asked how the petition with the same plea of exemption from personal appearance in the court can be allowed. The senior lawyer contended that the plea is maintainable in the changed circumstances. Mr. Reddy was the main opposition leader when he filed the petition for the first time but had emerged as the Chief Minister of the State now.
The senior counsel contended that Mr. Reddy had filed the petition for exemption from personal appearance first in 2014 and then in 2016 again. But the judge did not turn down the second plea in 2016 stating it was already heard in 2014, the lawyer told the court.
Stating that changed circumstances can be the ground for filing the plea in the same court again, the lawyer cited verdicts delivered by the High Court cases of AP, Kerala and Odisha.
