Order against Naidu: Supreme Court declines to interfere
November 23rd, 2011 - 11:04 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, Nov 23 (IANS) The Supreme Court Wednesday declined to interfere in an Andhra Pradesh High Court order directing the CBI and the ED to probe allegations of financial lapses against former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu and three others.
An apex court bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari, Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Dipak Misra asked the three petitioners — Rithwick Projects Ltd. chairman cum managing director C.M. Ramesh, newspaper baron Cherukuri Ramoji Rao and M/S Madhucon Sugar and Power Industries Ltd. — to go back to the high court for redressal of their grievances.
It asked the high court to dispose off their plea within 15 days of their moving it.
Ramesh, who also happens to be a leader of Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party, moved the apex court challenging the high court’s interim order of Nov 14, directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and two other agencies to carry out probe against Naidu and others.
The high court had ordered the CBI to hold the probe while admitting a plea by Y.S. Vijaya - the widow of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajshekhar Reddy.
The court had given the investigating agencies three months to see if there was a prima facie case in the allegations by Vijaya.
“Instead of telling us, why not tell the high court that they (Chandrababu Naidu and others) were not heard,” the apex court told senior counsel U.U. Lalit.
Justice Bhandari told Lalit, “When petition (by Vijaya) is pending before the High Court, nothing prevents you for approaching it for the modification of the interim order.”
“A number of times we pass ex parte orders but when other side approaches us we change our order,” the court said.
Justice Thakur said: “Do the citizens of this country have a right to live free from the CBI. Is it that any one can move the court and investigation is ordered.”
“If the high court records a prima facie finding then the investigating officer has no option…,” he said.
The court reiterated its position when senior counsel Anil Divan, appearing for Cherukuri Ramoji Rao, pleaded for some protection from the interim order of the high court.
Divan said that the right to life and personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the constitution also included the “right of the people to live without the fear of being hounded by police”.
Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani, who appeared for Vijaya, opposed the plea by Ramesh and Ramoji Rao contending that the court had the power to order such investigations.
–Indo-Asian New Service
pk/rah/vm
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Tags: andhra pradesh chief, andhra pradesh high court, apex court, bhandari, cbi, central bureau of investigation, cherukuri, chief minister, court bench, dipak, enforcement directorate, lalit, m ramesh, misra, naidu, prima facie case, ramoji rao, senior counsel, telugu desam party, thakur