The Supreme Court on Wednesday, while setting aside the Andhra Pradesh High Court order that stayed probe into the Amaravati land scam, directed the High Court to hear the case on its merits.
The Bench of Justice M.R. Shah and Justice C.T. Ravikumar, while making it clear that it was not expressing anything on the merits of the case, observed that the High Court should not have granted an interim stay as the entire matter was at a premature stage.
The Apex Court directed the High Court to decide the writ petition on merits in accordance with the law without being influenced by any of the observations made in the Apex Court order. It also allowed the petition filed by the Andhra Pradesh government, which challenged the High Court verdict of 2020.
In September 2020, the High Court had stayed the government orders sanctioning the constitution of a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to probe into the allegations of land scam in Amaravati during the previous dispensation under the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
The Apex Court had reserved its judgement in November 2022.
During the hearing today, the Senior Counsel appearing for the state submitted that the High Court had misinterpreted the two government orders.
Taking in view these submissions, the Bench noted that the two GOs did not overturn the earlier decisions taken by the previous government. It said the sub-committee was formed under the SIT to inquire into the allegations of corruption and malfeasance of the previous government.
The top court of the country further noted that the High Court had not considered several submissions based on the precedents set by the Supreme Court.
It said the High Court did not consider various contentions raised before this court, based on the decisions of this Court on legal aspects. The fact that the first petitioner had made a request to the Central government to refer the matter to CBI has not been taken into consideration, added the top court of the country.
The ruling dispensation in Andhra Pradesh had accused TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu and his associates of amassing huge wealth by illegal means, under the garb of developing Amaravati, the proposed capital of the state.
Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had formed a cabinet sub-committee, in pursuance of a government order, to scrutinise various policy decisions taken by the previous government, along with the programmes started by the last regime during their tenure, especially with respect to projects such as the Capital Region, Polavaram.
The Reddy government issued a second government order on the basis of findings of this sub-committee, which recorded corruption and fraudulent land transactions at Amravati. The second GO ordered the setting up of an SIT to conduct investigation into the allegations.
These two government orders came under the scanner of the High Court, which held them in abeyance on the basis of a prima facie finding that they were politically motivated.
The High Court had further said in its September 2020 order that the current government did not have the power to carte blanche review all policies propounded by their predecessors.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Singhvi represented the Andhra Pradesh government, while Senior Advocate Siddharth Dave appeared for the respondents.