Supreme Court starts detailed study of Chandrababu Naidu case

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday took up detailed examination of a petition by former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, in judicial custody for his alleged involvement in the Rs 371 crore skill development scam, seeking quashing of the FIR as police did not take the mandatory sanction from the governor before initiating inquiry against him.

A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi initially thought of sending the matter back to the high court as Naidu’s counsel Harish Salve argued that the HC did not consider the argument that for inquiring into any decision taken by a public servant under Prevention of Corruption Act, sanction from the competent authority has to be taken under Action 17A of the Act. Salve, however, argued that sending the matter back would serve no purpose as the HC has returned a finding that the offence allegedly committed in 2017 predated the insertion of Section 17A in PC Act, which was done in 2018.