Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu once again failed to get relief in the criminal proceedings against him in connection with a multi-crore skill development scam in the state, as his special leave petition in the Supreme Court was deferred at least by a week.
Reason: Supreme Court judge Justice SVN Bhatti on Wednesday recused himself from hearing a petition filed by Naidu seeking to quash the skill development case filed against him by the state Crime Investigation Department (CID).
The matter was listed before a bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti. As soon as the matter was taken, Justice Khanna told Naidu's lawyer, senior advocate Harish Salve, "My brother has some reservations about hearing the matter.”
Salve said he had nothing to say about Bhatti’s recusal from hearing the case.
“Please list it as early as possible", Salve replied.
Accordingly, Justice Khanna directed the matter to be placed before a bench not comprising Justice Bhatti, pronouncing - "Subject to the orders of the Hon'ble the Chief Justice, the present special leave petition shall be placed before a bench of which one of us, my brother, is not a member.
The case was postponed to next Tuesday, as there were vacations to the court from Thursday. Naidu’s counsel Siddhartha Luthra later mentioned it before the bench of chief justice of India D Y Chandrachud, who deferred the hearing to next Tuesday.
It was a big surprise for the TDP chief’s lawyers, as to why Justice Bhatti said “not before me.” Apparently, the judge felt that his presence on the bench might give the impression that he might act in a prejudiced manner – as he hails from Andhra Pradesh.
Enquiries revealed that Justice Bhatti had been the judge of Andhra Pradesh high court between 2013 and 2019 (first in combined AP and then in AP high court) and delivered certain judgements against the then Naidu government.
That could be the reason why Justice Bhatti wanted to play safe. If he pronounces any judgement against Naidu, it might send wrong signals, he might have thought.
In any case, the recusal by Justice Bhatti resulted in further delay of the case and Naidu would have to be in jail for one more week.
