Amaravati Land Scam: SC Quashes AP HC’s Stay On State Government’s SIT Probe

The Supreme Court today quashes the Andhra Pradesh High Court order allowing the constitution of a SIT to probe into the allegations of a land scam in Amaravati.

While making it clear about the merits in the case, the Bench of Justice M.R. Shah and Justice C.T. Ravikumar observed that the High Court shouldn’t have granted an interim stay as the whole matter was at a premature stage.

Therefore, the Apex Court assisted the High Court to decide the writ petition on merits in accordance with the law without being influenced by any of the observations made in the Apex Court order.

Also, it allowed the petition filed by the Andhra Pradesh government challenging the High Court verdict of 2020.

In September 2020, the High Court hold on the government orders for sanctioning constitution of a SIT to probe into the allegations of land scam in Amaravati during the past dispensation under the Telugu Desam Party.

However, the Apex Court reserved its judgement in November 2022.

During the hearing, the Senior Counsel appeared for the state and submitted that the High Court misinterpreted the two government orders.

While taking views in these submissions, the Bench noted that the 2 government officers didn’t overturn the decisions taken by the previous government. It said that the sub-committee was created under the SIT to inquire into the allegations of corruption and malfeasance of the previous government.

Further, the top court of the country noted that the High Court didn’t consider several submissions that’s based on the pattern set by the Supreme Court.

It said that the High Court didn’t consider various disputes raised before the court. The fact that the first petitioner made a request to the Central government for referring the matter to CBI that hasn’t been taken into consideration.

The ruling dispensation in Andhra Pradesh accused TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu and associates of amassing huge wealth by unlawful means, under the garb of developing Amaravati, proposing the capital of state.

Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy set up a cabinet sub-committee, in the enactment of a government order, for scrutinizing various policy decisions taken by the previous government.

Therefore, the Reddy government issued order of the 2nd government on the basis of findings of this sub-committee that recorded corruption & fraudulent land transactions at Amravati.

The second government officer (GO) ordered the setting up of an SIT to conduct investigation in the allegations.

Moreover, these 2 government orders came under the scanner of the High Court, which held in suspense based of prima facie finding that they were politically motivated.

Further, the High Court said in its order of September 2020 that the current government didn’t have the power to carte blanche for reviewing all policies propounded by their predecessors.