Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved order in a plea by Andhra Pradesh against the High Court’s ruling of staying the YSRC government’s orders (GOs) to constitute a Cabinet Sub-Committee to scrutinise decisions taken by the previous TDP regime and form an SIT for probing the alleged irregularities, including the Amaravati land scam.
The verdict was reserved by a bench of Justices MR Shah and MM Sundresh after hearing the submissions of senior advocate AM Singhvi for the State and senior advocate Siddhartha Dave for TDP leader.The HC on September 16 had stayed the GOs by prima facie finding that it was politically motivated and that the current government did not have the power to carte blanche review all policies propounded by the previous regime. By a separate order delivered on September 16, the HC had also refused to impleadment of the Centre and the ED as respondents even though the State had wished to involve them in the investigation of the matter.
Terming the probe into alleged irregularities by the previous regime a ‘witch hunt’, Dave contended that taint is attached with the SIT. “They have made up their mind and they are saying that it is unbridled corruption. They are so wide that everything is coming under the sun. They choose an administrative body and not a statutory body. It is biased. Here bias is there from the Constitution itself,” Dave further added. He also said, “The State cannot do any inquiry to find out that there may have been an offence which may have been committed.”
Considering Dave’s submission, Justice MR Shah, the presiding judge of the bench, said, “Merely because other side is political rivalry cannot be a ground for quashing, the judgment is very clear. If you are very clean, if other side is very clean, why should you worry?”
Questioning the High Court’s act of passing a blanket order of staying GOs, Singhvi had argued that the HC had completely misguided itself by drawing an equivalence between the court’s power of judicial review and the executive’s power to investigate.He further asserted that a successor government may investigate allegations and charges against the erstwhile government and the existence of political rivalry does not vitiate any inquiries.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved order in a plea by Andhra Pradesh against the High Court’s ruling of staying the YSRC government’s orders (GOs) to constitute a Cabinet Sub-Committee to scrutinise decisions taken by the previous TDP regime and form an SIT for probing the alleged irregularities, including the Amaravati land scam.
The verdict was reserved by a bench of Justices MR Shah and MM Sundresh after hearing the submissions of senior advocate AM Singhvi for the State and senior advocate Siddhartha Dave for TDP leader.The HC on September 16 had stayed the GOs by prima facie finding that it was politically motivated and that the current government did not have the power to carte blanche review all policies propounded by the previous regime. By a separate order delivered on September 16, the HC had also refused to impleadment of the Centre and the ED as respondents even though the State had wished to involve them in the investigation of the matter.
Terming the probe into alleged irregularities by the previous regime a ‘witch hunt’, Dave contended that taint is attached with the SIT. “They have made up their mind and they are saying that it is unbridled corruption. They are so wide that everything is coming under the sun. They choose an administrative body and not a statutory body. It is biased. Here bias is there from the Constitution itself,” Dave further added. He also said, “The State cannot do any inquiry to find out that there may have been an offence which may have been committed.”
Considering Dave’s submission, Justice MR Shah, the presiding judge of the bench, said, “Merely because other side is political rivalry cannot be a ground for quashing, the judgment is very clear. If you are very clean, if other side is very clean, why should you worry?”
Questioning the High Court’s act of passing a blanket order of staying GOs, Singhvi had argued that the HC had completely misguided itself by drawing an equivalence between the court’s power of judicial review and the executive’s power to investigate.He further asserted that a successor government may investigate allegations and charges against the erstwhile government and the existence of political rivalry does not vitiate any inquiries.
