Chandrababu Naidu's Case Hearing : Live Updates From Supreme Court [Day 3]

The Supreme Court will continue hearing today former Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu's petition to quash FIR in relation to skill development scam case.

This is the third day of hearing before a bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose & Bela Trivedi. Report of yesterday's hearing can be read here.  The first day's hearing report can be read here.

The prime point raised by Naiud's lawyers is regarding the applicability of Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which was inserted after the 2018 amendment. As per this section, no investigation under the PC Act can be launched against a public servant without obtaining prior sanction from the competent authority. Naidu's lawyers argue that the FIR against him and his arrest are illegal since the Governor's sanction was not obtained by the AP CID before adding the former Chief Minister as an accused.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court rejected the contention by holding that Section 17A was not applicable to the case before the alleged offences were committed before the 2018 amendment. Naidu challenges this reasoning of the High Court by arguing that it is the date of the registration of the FIR which matters for the applicability of Section 17A. The FIR in this case was registered in December 2021. In response, the State has taken a plea that the inquiry in relation to the offence started prior to the 2018 amendment. Naidu's lawyers dispute this factual claim.

During the hearing yesterday, the bench asked whether it can adopt an interpretation of Section 17A which will defeat the purpose of the Prevention of Corruption Act. In response, Senior Advocate Harish Salve, for Naidu, stated that Section 17A was intended as a protection to a public servant from harassment by the police after a change in the government.

Live-updates from today's hearing can be followed in this page.