Skill development scam: Supreme Court verdict on January 16 on Chandrababu Naidu's plea for quashing FIR

New Delhi [India], January 15 : The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce its verdict on Tuesday in a plea filed by former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu seeking to quash the FIR and criminal proceedings against him in the Skill Development scam case.
Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi will deliver the verdict on January 16 at 1 pm on a special leave petition filed by the Naidu against the Andhra Pradesh High Court's order of September 22, 2023, denying him relief.
The top court had reserved the order on the plea for October 17, 2023.
Naidu had approached the top court seeking quashing of the FIR and cited Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, to challenge his arrest by the Andhra Pradesh police's CID in a skill development scam. He had challenged the High Court judgement rejecting his plea for the quashing of the FIR.
Naidu, however, was granted regular bail in November of last year.
Naidu had sought quashing of the FIR registered by AP-CID in the alleged Rs 371 crore skill development scam on the ground that the police did not obtain prior sanction from the Governor as mandated under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.
The Andhra Pradesh government had objected to Naidu's plea, saying Section 17A of the PC Act can't parachute in cases of alleged corruption leading to loss to the state exchequer that happened before its insertion in the Act on July 26, 2018.
Section 17A, inserted in July 2018 by way of an amendment, requires the investing agencies to obtain prior sanction from the competent authorities for the registration of FIR and initiate "inquiry, enquiry or investigation" against a public servant responsible for the decision or recommendation resulting in loss to the state exchequer and corruption.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Andhra Pradesh, had told the top court that no prior sanction of the State Governor was required for registering FIR and the consequent investigation against former Chief Minister Naidu for alleged corruption and loss to the state in his skill development project during 2014-2016.
In his plea, Naidu contended that the Andhra Pradesh High Court had rejected his petition last month by ignoring his pleading that under Section 17A of the PC Act, which came into force on July 26, 2018, no FIR against a public servant could be registered without prior sanction of the appropriate authority.
The FIR against Naidu was registered on December 9, 2021, and he was added as accused number 37 in the case on September 7, 2023. Section 17A of the PC Act was not complied with as "no permission was obtained from the competent authority," the plea stated.
As Naidu was the Chief Minister at the time of the commission of the alleged offence relating to the skill development scam, the competent authority would have been the Governor of the State.
Naidu, presently the Leader of Opposition and the national president of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), called the action against him "an orchestrated campaign of regime revenge and to derail the largest opposition, the Telugu Desam Party."
"The extent of the political vendetta is further demonstrated by the belated application for grant of police custody on September 11, 2023, which names the political opponent, i.e., the TDP and also the petitioner's family, which is being targeted to crush all opposition to the party in power in the state with elections coming near in 2024," the plea added.
This motivated campaign of harassment has been allowed to continue by the courts unabated despite patent illegality in the FIR, the appeal stated.
Naidu had also challenged the Andhra Pradesh High Court order denying him anticipatory bail in the FiberNet scam case.