TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu’s two cases are to be heard in the Supreme Court today. The quash petition and the bail petition of Naidu are scheduled to come up for hearing on Friday.
Naidu had field the quash petition on the skill development scam. His advocates have argued that the AP CID officials have not followed the Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act while arresting Chandrababu Naidu. They alleged that the CID did not take permission from the competitive authority – the Governor – while arresting Chandrababu Naidu. They wanted the case to be dropped and the judicial remand be withdrawn.
However, the CID officials told the court that the skill development case was started in 2018 and hence Section 17A is not applicable as the section came into force in 2018. They also told the court that Chandrababu Naidu is now just an MLA and the competitive authority – the Speaker of the Assembly – was already informed.
The advocates also told the court that ‘former chief minister’ is not an official position. It is only a tag given to a former chief minister and has no legal protection. As an MLA, the arrest of Chandrababu Naidu was informed to the Speaker of the Assembly, the advocates told the court.
It is now to be seen what the Supreme Court would say on this case. The judgment on this is expected by afternoon on Friday.
The other case is the anticipatory bail petition in the fiber grid case. The AP high court had already dismissed the petition on which Naidu’s advocates approached the supreme court. The case is likely to come up in the supreme court today.
