New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will hold the final hearing on July 22 on Andhra Pradesh government’s plea against the September 15, 2020 high court’s order against coercive action against former advocate general Damalapati Srinivas.
The state’s plea was also against the HC order against investigation and gagging of the media from reporting the FIR, while it had “cold-shouldered” the state governments’ plea to remand that matter back to high court.
The top court had on September 25, 2020, lifted the state’s curbs on the media against reporting the FIR in the Amaravati land case allegedly involving Dammalapati Srinivas.
A bench comprising Justice Vineet Saran and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari directed that the matter be listed for final hearing on July 22. Senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan made a vain effort to persuade the court that the matter be remanded back to the high court and the state will withdraw its plea against the interim order of the high court.
Dhavan said no coercive steps will be taken against advocate general Srinivas but the investigations may be allowed to proceed.
Reiterating his earlier argument of an act of “regime revenge” against Srinivas, senior lawyer Harish Salve said the matter could be sent back to the high court provided the plea by the state government against the interim order of the high court is dismissed.
The argument of “regime revenge” was first used by Dhavan in a case against late Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa. Dhavan said on Tuesday that he appreciated Salve using a phrase coined by him against him (Dhavan) in the matter before the court.
During the September hearing, Salve had told the court that the entire action of the state government against former AG Srinivas was mala fide and it was a case of “regime revenge”, as the former advocate general had appeared against the chief minister Jagan in several criminal matters. The court was informed that Jagan is facing 25 such cases.
On September 25, 2020, while lifting the gag order against the media, a top court bench comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan (since retired), Justice Subhash Reddy and Justice MR Shah, had however not interfered with the high court order against any coercive action against Damalapati Srinivasan, and putting on hold the investigation into the FIR.
While not issuing notice to chief minister Jagan as the high court too had not issued any notice to him in September last year, the top court, by its September 25, 2020 order had issued notice to the head of the state police, director general, the anti-corruption Bureau and the head of the State intelligence department.
