SC stays A.P. HC’s gag order to media in Amaravati land scam case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed an interim course of the Andhra Pradesh High Court to gag the media from reporting on an FIR registered on the alleged “illegal purchase” of land in Amaravati.

A 3-judge Bench, led by Justice Ashok Bhushan, gave 4 weeks to former State Additional Advocate General and first respondent, Dammalapati Srinivas, to file his response. Mr. Srinivas is called in the FIR. Others named embrace the family of a sitting Supreme Court decide.

The FIR exhibits offences underneath the Prevention of Corruption Act, legal breach of belief and dishonest underneath the Indian Penal Code. The allegations embrace abuse of official positions in the State, sharing of privileged data and inflicting loss to the general public exchequer throughout the earlier Telegu Desam Party regime.

Order follows FIR registration

The High Court handed the gag order inside hours of the registration of the FIR on September 15. It stayed the investigation and barred the State from taking any coercive motion in opposition to the individuals named in the FIR.

The order was based mostly on a writ petition filed by Mr. Srinivas. The Jaganmohan Reddy authorities had appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Bench issued discover and posted the enchantment for listening to in the final week of January 2021. The apex courtroom didn’t, nevertheless, serve discover on Mr. Reddy, who’s arraigned because the fifth respondent in the State enchantment, noting the High Court had not achieved so earlier. Meanwhile, the High Court was requested not to move any ultimate orders in the case.

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, for the Andhra authorities, dismissed notions that the FIR was a product of “regime revenge”. He stated such arguments made by senior advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi, for Mr. Srinivas, was merely “rhetorical”.

“Do they mean that a subsequent government can never investigate its predecessor’s activities? If a criminal case has been registered, the answer is simple, the case has to be investigated… The FIR is detailed. Do advocate generals get immunity no matter what crime they commit?” he said.

Request for CBI probe

In fact, Mr. Dhavan said, the State had made a request on March 23 to the Centre to initiate a CBI investigation into the case. The September 15 stay order looked as if the High Court was dealing with a plea for “anticipatory bail”.

“How can they stay an investigation which was in its nascent stage? Malafide against the State has to be proved through material evidence… Here he [Srinivas] had merely said the police and the State were acting like the Gestapo to get the stay order from the High Court”, Mr. Dhavan submitted.

He objected to the gag on the media. “An FIR is a public document”, he said. He known as the September 15 order “draconian”.

Mr. Rohatgi countered that “news had appeared before and after the hearing [in the High Court]”. He submitted, “The case concerns transactions associated to land which was already in the public domain. The idea behind the FIR was only to scandalise. On the other hand, there is a flurry of criminal cases against the Chief Minister. He [Reddy] has got no relief, even from the Supreme Court. My client had appeared against the CM in many cases. This FIR reeks of malafide”.

He referred to how “secret enquiries were made from the Income Tax Department” to get particulars. “Was that not worse than the Gestapo?” he noticed. The keep order was handed because the High Court was delicate to the likelihood that an individual’s popularity could possibly be marred simply.

Mr. Salve stated efforts to unearth alleged irregularities in opposition to the earlier regime started quickly after Mr. Reddy got here to energy. He stated the unfolding of occasions main to the registration of FIR had displayed the “arrogance of power”. Mr. Srinivas was being “targetted” for his skilled appearances in courtroom as a lawyer in opposition to Mr. Reddy.