The Andhra Pradesh Government filed a caveat petition in the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking to be duly heard before a decision was taken on the SLP filed by the former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu against the dismissal of his quash petition by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in the skill development scam case.
Justice K. Sreenivasa Reddy of the High Court had refused to interfere in the matter, saying that it was not proper on his part to concede the plea when ‘the investigation was on the fulcrum of attaining finality’ and a ‘mini-trial’ could not be conducted at that stage.
Aggrieved by this, Mr. Naidu filed the SLP in the apex court, which posted it to October 3 after one of the two judges (Justice S.V.N. Bhatti) who was supposed to hear it, had recused himself. Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra then made a mention before Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud on Mr. Naidu’s behalf, seeking an expeditious hearing, but to no avail as the CJI found no urgency to take it up instantly.
Mr. Naidu’s basic contention was that the registration of the FIR was barred by Section 17-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act as it related to official acts of public servants.
The High Court ought to have seen that the registration of the FIR and all consequent actions of the respondents (Mangalagiri SHO, CID and Chairman, AP State Skill Development), including his remand, suffered from patent illegalities, therefore, the impugned judgment was unsustainable in law, Mr. Naidu maintained.
Meanwhile, Mr. Naidu’s bail plea in the Amaravati Inner Ring Road (IRR) alignment case and the bail petition filed by his son Nara Lokesh in the same case are scheduled to be heard by Justice K. Suresh Reddy on September 29. Mr. Naidu and former minister P. Narayana are A-1 and A-2 respectively in this case while Mr. Lokesh has just been added as A-14.
