The Supreme Court on Thursday served notices on the accused in Amaravati land scam, who had obtained stay from the high court into the investigation by Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Andhra Pradesh police.
A division bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice MR Shah and Justice B Subhash Reddy took the decision based on the special leave petition filed by the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government challenging the high court order.
It may be recalled that the high court had issued orders in September, stalling the probe into the alleged land scam in Amaravati and gagging the media from reporting the contents of the FIR registered by the ACB against former advocate general Dammalapati Srinivas and others.
While the gag order triggered nation-wide outrage from the media and also legal luminaries, the AP government moved the Supreme Court challenging the high court order.
Arguing on behalf of the state government, senior advocate Dushyant Dave described the high court order as extraordinary and said the stay granted by the high court of the SIT probe had stopped the entire investigation into allegations of fraudulent practices and abuse of power by the previous Telugu Desam Party government.
Dave said it was impossible for a high court to interfere at a pre-investigation stage and stay all proceedings. He questioned the propriety of the high court admitting a petition filed by the TDP stating that the investigation would damage the party’s image.
He argued that the high court could not have exercised such broad powers as it was also bound by the laws declared by the supreme court.
“The high court doesn’t have extraordinary powers to pass any order as it likes. The judges interdicted a probe and even registration of a case. Can this be allowed? Is this how a high court can function?" questioned Dave.
Dave went on to urge the Supreme Court to issue notices and make it returnable.
The SC bench led by Justice Bhushan Issued notice to the respondents on the state government’s appeal as well as on petition for interim relief. The respondents have been directed to also file counter affidavit and granted liberty to file additional documents.