The Supreme Court’s ruling on Wednesday staying the order of Andhra Pradesh high court restraining the media from reporting the contents of an FIR filed by the AP anti-corruption bureau, has come as a big relief to YSR Congress party.
Senior YSRC leader and state minister for municipal administration and urban development Botsa Satyanarayana said the Supreme Court’s stay on the gag order curbing media from publishing the contents of the FIR registered by state Anti-Corruption Bureau in Amaravati land scam case vindicated the state government’s stand.
“We have expected that the Supreme Court would stay the high court order, as we know are on the right side of the justice,” Botsa told reporters.
He pointed out that right from the beginning, the state government had been maintaining a clear stand that facts should come out in the Amaravati land scam.
“When the high court issued an order gagging the media, we strongly opposed it. Even media organisations and other intellectuals opposed the gag order,” he pointed out.
He said never in the history of judiciary that such a gag order was passed by any court and it was very unfortunate.
“Now, the Supreme Court, too, supported our stand. It clearly said the gag order was not correct and that the probe should go on,” the minister said.
Botsa said there cannot be different laws for common man and those in high positions and the Constitution of India did not discriminate between them.
“Law will take its own course,” he asserted.
In its special leave petition in the Supreme Court, the state government requested that the court consider quashing the gag and also on the stay on the investigation, on the ground that the whole petition of Dammalapati Srinivas was misconceived and was entertained even before the registration of the FIR.
“Investigations should not be stayed as a matter of routine exercise. Moreover, only one person approached the high court and how can the court grant relief to all the 13 accused in the FIR? Moreover, no provision in the Advocates Act, 1961, prescribes protection of advocates,” the government argued.
The three-judge Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, MR Shah and Subhash Reddy said The Andhra Pradesh HC shall not decide till January end on the matter related to alleged irregularities in land transaction in Amaravati.