Chandrababu Naidu's Plea To Quash FIR : Live Updates From Supreme Court

Justice Trivedi : There are many contours of 17A. Offences are before 17A came into force. Subsequently, other public servants are added. So in that case, will 17A apply?

Justice Bose : The cognizance is of the offence and the not the offenders.

Salve : Prior to this(adding Naidu as accused), somebody should have gone to the Governor and got permission

Salve : The petitioner (Chandrababu Naidu) gets added on September 8, 2023. In the remand, there is a report dated 8 September 2023. Accused 1 is mentioned, then Accused 37(Naidu) and 38 are mentioned.

Reads remand report :

It is said as per investigation, A36 committed offence prima facie instructed by A37...there is a prima facie case is established under PC Act so and so...they were added as accused.

Salve : Today, this is the Standard Operating Procedure (the Centre's SoP on 17A). Of course, it is not binding on the Court. But it will help in understanding the interpretation.

Salve : My eminent friend Rajeev Dhavan had coined this expression "regime revenge".

Justice Trivedi : This SoP was published three years after the insertion of 17A. So what was happening before that?

Salve : It was all over the place.

Salve : When you add a public servant in the FIR, there has to be 17A approval.

Salve : The SoP means approvals are step-by-step process. So when you move from one step to another, you need separate proposals. The checklist makes that very clear. So when you move from enquiry to inquiry to investigation, you need separate proposals.

Salve : There is a mandatory requirement for a police officer to seek prior approval for conducting any inquiry or investigation.

Salve : The attention of this Court was not drawn to the understanding of the Government of India on Section 17A. There is an SoP by the Govt of India. 3rd Sep 2021, it is addressed to all the States, so as to standardise the procedure for prior approval processes under 17A. The SoP provides for stage-wise approval