The alliance with BJP in the ongoing elections in AP and the latest bonhomie with top BJP leaders including PM Modi and Amit Shah seems to have paid off for Chandrababu Naidu.
Naidu got a major relief in the multi-crore Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation scam, with the Supreme Court deferring by 10 weeks the hearing on the special leave petition filed by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government seeking cancellation of bail to Naidu in the case.
Senior lawyer Ranjit Kumar, arguing for the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Andhra police, told the bench of Justice Bela Trivedi that the case pertaining to applicability of Section 17-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act was pending before the three-member bench.
Justice Trivedi wanted to know whether the SLP on bail cancellation could be taken up after the issue on Section 17-A was resolved.
Arguing for Naidu, senior lawyer Siddharth Luthra said the CID had already filed the chargesheet in the case but the court had not taken it into cognizance as the issue of 17-A was not resolved.
He pointed out that the bail was granted to Naidu by the state high court much before the Supreme Court took up the case on Section 17-A.
Justice Trivedi announced that he would defer the hearing on Naidu’s bail cancellation petition to July till the three-member bench decides on the applicability of Section 17-A.
The judge said there was no need to take up the hearing so urgently and would hear the same after summer vacations.