Amravati Land Scam: SC Sets Aside AP HC's Stay On State's Decision To Appoint SIT To Probe Alleged Corruption By Previous Government

The Supreme Court today allowed the Civil Appeal filed by the State of Andhra Pradesh challenging the interim order of the High Court which had stayed the Government Orders appointing a committee to undertake a fact-finding exercise regarding widespread allegations of corruption by the previous government, and thereafter constituting a Special Investigative Team (“SIT”) to carry out an investigation in relation to the same.

The Bench comprising Justice M.R. Shah and Justice C.T. Ravikumar set aside the interim order of the High and allowed the appeals to that extent. The Court said that "the State is justified in submitting that the High Court has misinterpreted the aforesaid 2 GOs and considered the same as overturning the decision of the previous government" and that "if the 2 government GOs are considered, it can be seen that the same cannot be said to be overturning the earlier decisions taken by the previous government and ought to review the decision taken by the previous government."

The Court further said that "the High Court has also not considered various contentions raised before us based on the legal aspect. The fact that the first petitioner had made a request to the central government to refer the matter to CBI has not been taken into consideration. In our view, the High Court ought not to have granted any interim stay when it was not required as the entire matter is at a premature stage."

The Bench clarified that "we are making it clear that we have not expressed anything on the merits of the case and the High Court is expected to decide the writ petition on merits and in accordance with the law without being influenced by any of the observations made in our order"

Senior Advocate S. Niranjan Reddy and A.M. Singhvi along with AOR Mahfooz A. Nazki had appeared for the Petitioners. The Respondents were represented by Senior Advocate Sidharth Dave along with AOR Guntur Pramod Kumar.

A bench of Justice M.R. Shah and M.M. Sundresh on November 17, 2022, had reserved its judgment on the matter. The Andhra Pradesh High Court had in the order stayed the operation of both the Government Orders (GOs) on the ground that: "These GOs are vitiated by virtue of bias since there exists a political rivalry between the present government and the erstwhile government, and the Executive does not have the power to review the actions of previous governments and conduct such an investigation."

The State of Andhra Pradesh had argued before the Supreme Court that there was no question of any bias in the present matter and that the proceedings were completely fair, above-board, beyond reproach and that the political rivalry between successive governments does not vitiate a legitimate inquiry. Further, it was argued that the finding in relation to the power of review is completely misplaced. The State had also submitted that this is an unwarranted and premature interference with a legitimate investigation 

The Respondents had contended that if there had been any weight to the allegations, an FIR would have mandatorily been registered on receipt of any complaint, in terms of the judgment in Lalita Kumari v. State of Uttar Pradesh (2014) 2 SCC 1 and the fact that the de facto complainant (i.e., the State) and the investigating officer are the same person is indicative of inherent bias. It was also argued that the GOs ought to be struck down because the State constituted the Cabinet Sub-Committee to conduct an inquiry without following the statutory procedures for the same under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1985.

Cause Title: State of Andhra Pradesh & Anr v. Varla Ramaiah [Diary No.- 20524 - 2020]