The special leave petition filed by the Andhra Pradesh government led by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, challenging the state high court’s order cancelling the suspension of senior IPS officer and former intelligence chief A B Venkateshwara Rao came up for hearing in the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
However, Supreme Court judge Justice Lavu Nageshwara Rao, before whose bench the SLP came up for hearing, recused himself from the case, surprising the lawyers. The case is now posted for further hearing before another division bench after the winter vacations.
The decision of Justice Rao to recuse himself from hearing the case led to discussion in the media circles as to what the reason could be.
According to sources, Justice Rao might be of the view that since he is also from Andhra Pradesh and more so from Krishna district to which Venkateshwara Rao belongs to, it might give an impression that he might favour the IPS officer.
Secondly, Justice Rao is also from the same community as that of Venkateshwara Rao. So, if he gives judgement in favour of the ex-intelligence chief, there is every possibility that it might get caste colour. So, it is better not to hear the case in the first place, the SC judge might have thought.
It may be mentioned that Venkateshwar Rao was suspended on February 8 this year for his alleged irregularities in procurement of security equipment from an Israeli company during the previous Telugu Desam Party regime.
The Jagan government, which entrusted the case to Anti-Corruption Bureau, alleged that the ex-intelligence chief had colluded with an Israeli defence equipment manufacturing firm RT Inflatables Pvt Ltd to illegally award critical intelligence and surveillance contract to his son Chetan Sai Krishna, who is the CEO of Akasam Advanced Systems Pvt Ltd.
The government also alleged that Rao had willfully disclosed intelligence protocols and procedures of police to the foreign defence manufacturing firm, which was a direct threat to national security as intelligence protocols are standard throughout the Indian Police Force.
Rao challenged his suspension by filing a petition in the Central Administrative Tribunal on February 13. He contended that the suspension was politically motivated and was done based on frivolous grounds. However, the CAT on March 17 upheld his suspension.
Later, he moved the high court, which had given the judgement in his favour and cancelled his suspension in July. The AP government challenged this order in the Supreme Court.
