In a big relief to YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, the Telangana high court on Friday given total exemption to him from attending the special court for CBI cases personally.
All these days, the chief minister has been seeking exemption every time he is asked to appear from attending the CBi court in connection with the alleged quid pro quo case pending against him on the ground that he is busy with his official work.
Hitherto, the CBI court was hearing the case every Friday. But now, it is now forced to take up daily hearings as per the Supreme Court guidelines. Accordingly, the CBI court issued directions to Jagan to attend the hearings regularly.
Since it won’t be possible to Jagan to stay put in Hyderabad permanently and file exemption petitions regularly, he moved the high court seeking permanent exemption from appearing the CBI court in view of his official commitments.
The high court admitted the petition and agreed with his contention. Therefore, it dismissed the CBI court directions and exempted Jagan from appearing in the trial court regularly.
Instead, the high court ruled that Jagan could represent his case through his counsel during the daily proceedings. However, whenever the CBI court felt Jagan’s presence is essential, he should compulsorily attend the trial, the high court said.