SC sets aside A.P. HC order, tells trial court to hear YSRCP leader’s bail plea

Stressing that bail pleas must be heard expeditiously wherever personal liberty is at stake, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said it was “dismayed” at an October 9 order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court that had restrained the trial court from considering the bail plea of YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) general secretary and former Chandragiri legislator Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy in the alleged multi-crore liquor scam.

The case is being probed by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the State.

The High Court had directed the trial court to defer consideration of Mr. Reddy’s bail plea until it decided the State’s petition seeking cancellation of regular bail granted earlier to a co-accused in the case.

A Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Viswanathan quashed the order, holding that there was “no good reason” for the High Court to have prevented the trial court from proceeding with the bail application. “At the outset, we may state that we are dismayed at the impugned order passed by the High Court. We do not approve of the same,” the Bench observed.

Accordingly, the court directed the trial court to hear Mr. Reddy’s bail plea “at the earliest” and decide it on its own merits, uninfluenced by any observations made by the High Court or by the pendency of related proceedings. “We order that the application filed by the State seeking cancellation of bail granted to Accused No. 4 shall be heard on its own merits in accordance with law, and at the same time, the bail application filed by the petitioner herein, arising from the very same FIR, shall also be heard at the earliest on its own merits,” the Bench recorded in its order.

Constitutional right

The court said that it has “time and again” underscored the need for expeditious hearing of bail applications, as delay in such matters violates the fundamental right to personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. Pointing out that the High Court had passed the impugned order ex parte, it noted, “The petitioner was not even before the High Court when the impugned order came to be passed.”

Mr. Reddy is arraigned as the 38th accused in the case. He has denied any involvement in the alleged scam, which is said to have occurred during the previous administration’s tenure.

The probe was initially undertaken by the Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (CID) following a complaint from the Excise Department. Subsequently, the TDP-led NDA government constituted a Special Investigation Team, headed by NTR District Commissioner of Police S.V. Rajashekhar Babu, to conduct a more comprehensive inquiry.

According to investigators, the alleged scheme involved a network of kickbacks and fund diversions amounting to nearly ₹3,500 crore over a period of five years. Those arrested so far include Raj Kesireddy (alias Kesireddy Rajashekar Reddy), an adviser to then Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy; K. Dhanunjaya Reddy, a retired IAS officer and former secretary to Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy; and Krishna Mohan Reddy, former Officer on Special Duty (OSD).