As announced, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh on Monday approached the Supreme Court on the case booked by Anti-Corruption Bureau against former advocate general Dammalapati Srinivas and 11 others in the Amaravati land scam.
The state government had filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court challenging the state high court order stalling the ACB investigation into the alleged land purchases made by Dammalapati and others.
The government also questioned the propriety of the state high court’s gag order prohibiting the media from publishing the contents of the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the ACB in the Dammalapati case.
According to government sources, the SC is expected to take up the petition in a day or two. It is also interesting to know which bench will take up this SLP, as it involves the daughters of a sitting SC judge.
The high court order asking the media not to report the FIR kicked up a huge debate in the media and legal fraternity, drawing flak from several top media persons and also legal luminaries.
The media organisations described it as gagging the freedom of press, circumscribing of free speech rights not envisaged by the constitution. The Indian Journalists’ Union also registered its protest against the gag order.