Supreme Court Scheduled to Hear Naidu’s SLP Regarding FIR on October 3:
The Supreme Court is set to consider the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by N. Chandrababu Naidu, the president of the Telugu Desam Party, seeking the cancellation of the FIR lodged against him in connection with the skill development scam. This hearing is scheduled for October 3.
Naidu initiated this legal action after the Andhra Pradesh High Court rejected his plea to quash the FIR related to the skill development scam. Initially, the Supreme Court was expected to conduct the hearing on the case on a Wednesday, following a request made by Babu’s counsel, Siddartha Luthra, who met with Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud on Tuesday and urged for an expedited hearing.
However, Justice S.V.N. Bhatti, a judge of the Supreme Court, recused himself from the case, citing his Andhra Pradesh background. Initially, when the petition was slated for a hearing before a two-member bench consisting of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and S.V.N. Bhatti, Justice Khanna informed Naidu’s counsel, Harish Salve, that his colleague had reservations about hearing the matter.
Salve responded, “We can say nothing about that. Please list it as early as possible.” Subsequently, Justice Khanna directed that the case be assigned to a different bench without SVN Bhatti.
Another of Babu’s legal representatives, Siddarth Luthra, brought the matter before the Chief Justice for urgent listing, and the Chief Justice agreed to schedule the hearing for October 3. However, the Chief Justice declined the request to restrain the trial court judge (ACB court) from handling the AP-CID’s plea for Naidu’s five-day custody.
Later in the proceedings, Luthra argued that the FIR filed against Babu by the CID was legally unsustainable since no prior sanction under Section 17-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act had been obtained from the Governor. He alleged that the CID custody and subsequent FIRs against Naidu were politically motivated by the state government to gain an advantage in the upcoming elections.
Luthra contended that Section 17-A mandated that a police officer must obtain prior approval from the competent authority before investigating any offense committed by a public servant. However, senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, representing the Andhra Pradesh government, countered that the skill development scam occurred before an amendment was made to Section 17-A of the PC Act in 2018, suggesting that prior permission from the Governor was unnecessary.
Naidu was arrested by the AP-CID on September 9 in Nandyal and has been in judicial remand since that date.
