Supreme Court refuses to give order on urgent listing

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to pass any order directing the urgent listing of a plea filed by former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu seeking quashing of the FIR registered against him in connection with the alleged Skill Development Corporation scam case.

“Come tomorrow in the mentioning list. We will see what to do,” told a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud to senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, who appeared for TDP chief, seeking an urgent hearing in the matter despite the petition not being there in the mentioning list.

Luthra, who made an unlisted mentioning, apprised the top court that Naidu is in custody from September 8 and opposition in Andhra Pradesh is being curbed.

The apex court did not accede to the out-of-turn mentioning and asked Luthra to mention the matter again on September 26 for directions seeking urgent listing.

Naidu has filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court after a single bench of Justice Sreenivas Reddy of the Andhra Pradesh High Court had dismissed his petition on September 22.

“The petitioner was suddenly named in the FIR registered over twenty-one months ago, arrested in an illegal manner and deprived of his liberty motivated only by political reasons and even though there is no material against him,” stated the plea filed before the apex court.

It said that both the initiation of the enquiry and the registration of the FIR against Naidu is non est (non-existent in law) as both have been initiated and investigation continued till date without a mandatory approval under Section 17-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

Naidu was arrested in the case by the CID in Nandyal on September 9. The next day, ACB Court in Vijayawada sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.