Chandrababu Naidu's Case : Live Updates From Supreme Court Hearing [Day 4]

Luthra: Mr Rohatgi's statement is good as gold. So no arrest till Wednesday and they will ask the court to defer it on Monday?

Rohatgi: Yes.

Bench rises.

Bench pronounces order -

"Issue notice. Standing counsel for State of Andhra Pradesh accepts service on behalf of respondent state. List this matter on Tuesday. If State wants to file a counter-affidavit, they may do so by Monday with copy to petitioners."

Justice Trivedi: Stay your hand.

Justice Bose: Tell the court that you're not arresting him till then.

Rohatgi: I will instruct that there should not be an arrest on Monday.

Luthra (raises apprehension of plea becoming infructuous): In FIR 29, I'm in judicial custody...

Justice Bose: Anticipatory bail plea will not become infructuous if there's no arrest.

Rohatgi: I'll ask the court to adjourn hearing till Wednesday.

Luthra: That's fair.

Luthra: Monday, they will arrest me. Tuesday, this petition will become infructuous. Please consider this.

Justice Bose: We are not passing any order. Till Monday can you hold the arrest?

Rohatgi: Matter is before the court. It's not in my hands.

Justice Bose: S17A point is overlapping. We'll do something: We'll issue a very short notice and take this up on Tuesday.

Luthra: Production warrants have been issued. Those may be kept in abeyance.

Rohatgi protests.

Luthra: They claim they have done an inquiry. Again there's a S17A bar here. HC does not consider it, bypasses our argument and their argument completely. There are 3 people on anticipatory bail, and 3 people on regular bail. Others have not been arrested. Order says that material is with them so there's no reason for arrest now. Where is the question of taking Naidu into custody in this matter, when all these people are out on bail? Elections are around the corner...

Luthra begins arguing with respect to #AndhraPradeshHC's refusal to grant anticipatory bail to Naidu in the FiberNet scam case -

Luthra: Once they arrested him in one case, they started roping him in other cases. FIR registered in 2021, nothing happened after that. 19th September, they added him as an accused, after he was arrested in the skill development case. He has been asked to appear. Our concern is that they will arrest him.

Salve: I've been If Your Lordships can accommodate me on Monday.

Rohatgi: I'll request it to be posted on Tuesday.

Salve: As a counsel, it doesn't matter whether it's on Monday or Tuesday. But a man is under incarceration.

Justice Bose: One day...we are hearing this from day-to-day.

Rohatgi: Incarceration has nothing to do with S 482. That's bail.

Salve: My learned friend should not try to forecast the end outcome.

Justice Bose: This will have to be carried over...Perhaps on a miscellaneous day.

Rohatgi: Can it be on Tuesday, instead of Monday?

Luthra asks courtmaster to unmute Sr Adv Harish Salve, who is appearing today virtually.

Justice Trivedi: This decision was taken at which level?

Rohatgi: By the chief minister.

Justice Bose: How do you trace money to petitioner?

Rohatgi: Our case is that nothing on ground happened and this money went back...How can such an affidavit be ignored? This is public fund, we are bound to investigate.