Supreme Court Denies Special Listing Request for Chandrababu Naidu's Plea in Development Scam Case
Chief Justice of India DY. Chandrachud advised senior counsel Sidharth Luthra, who was representing N. Chandrababu Naidu, to follow the established procedures for scheduling a hearing date.
Supreme Court Denies Special Listing Request for Chandrababu Naidu's Plea in Development Scam Case
Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and leader of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), N. Chandrababu Naidu, has taken his case of Skill Development Project to the Supreme Court, contesting the high court's decision that rejected his plea to invalidate the FIR lodged against him in the corruption case related to skill development project.
During his term as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh from 2014 to 2019, he launched a lot of schemes like the Ring Road project, Skill Development project etc. But the immediate pinpoint for him was the case of skill development centres. His government decided that they would set up an array of skill development centres in the state in collaboration with reputed company Siemens Industries Pvt ltd. in which the state govt was to contribute 10% as financial aid.
The Allegation was that the entire scheme was an elaborate facade created by his government and that the Grant in aid was only a fiction created by him and the whole idea was for the exchequer to pay this money to the private company. It was also alleged that Siemens was only a proxy to the state government. This money was transferred to a network of shell companies and many other questionable deals were carried out. These were picked up by the GST surveillance system and it was found out that there was no cabinet clearance taken for setting up that Corporation, but the money was paid, despite the objections of the then Principal Secretary of Finance K. Sunita.
In light of these instances, Chandrababu Naidu was arrested on 9th September and was kept in judicial custody for 14 days. The Andhra Pradesh High Court had previously declined to quash the petition, citing that it could not intervene as the investigation was in its concluding phase and had also refused to set aside the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court’s order to remand him.
“Investigation in so far as petitioner is concerned, it is at nascent stage, and at this stage, this court should not interfere with the proceedings in a petition under Section 482 CrPC,” the high court said.
Naidu's legal team submitted a copy of the petition to the Supreme Court registry on 23rd September, Saturday.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, representing the former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, emphasised the importance of expeditiously hearing his appeal to dismiss the FIRs, stating that "The opposition in the State has been stifled with Mr Naidu's detention."
Chief Justice of India DY. Chandrachud advised senior counsel Sidharth Luthra, who was representing N. Chandrababu Naidu, to follow the established procedures for scheduling a hearing date.
The Chief Justice responded to Luthra's request for an expedited hearing by saying, "Mention it tomorrow. It has to come in the mentioning list. Please, come tomorrow."
Justice DY. Chandrachud further clarified that he couldn't consider the plea immediately because it was not included in the list of cases scheduled for mentioning. This implies that the case would need to follow the regular court procedure for scheduling a hearing date, as mentioned by the Chief Justice.