The Supreme Court dismissed a plea challenging the Telangana High Court’s decision to quash a 2016 FIR against CM Revanth Reddy under the SC/ST Act and IPC. The bench said the High Court had “minutely considered the facts” and found no prima facie case.
The Supreme Court of India on Monday dismissed an appeal challenging the Telangana High Court order which had quashed a 2016 FIR against Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy under provisions of the SC/ST Act and the IPC.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi said the high court had
“minutely considered the facts of the case and found that no prima facie case is made out against respondent number 2 “.
The bench clarified that it was not giving any clean chit to the chief minister. However, it observed that the high court’s findings appeared to be “perfectly fine” and more believable in the facts and circumstances of the case.
During the hearing, the Chief Justice remarked that political disputes should not be taken to courts and said that political battles should not be fought in courts.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for the chief minister, described the petitioner N Peddi Raju as an adventurous litigant. He also pointed out that earlier, the petitioner had made allegations against the high court judge who had passed the order in favour of the chief minister.
On July 17 last year, the Telangana High Court had quashed the FIR registered against the chief minister. The criminal case was originally registered in 2016 at Gachibowli police station, where Revanth Reddy was named as accused number three.
The complaint was filed by a member associated with the SC Mutually Aided Cooperative Housing Society Limited. The complainant alleged that at Revanth Reddy’s instigation, his brother Kondal Reddy and some others trespassed into the Society’s land at Gopanpally village. It was alleged that they demolished two rooms with the help of an earth-moving machine in an attempt to illegally occupy the land.
The complainant further alleged that the accused persons made “casteist remarks” against him during the incident.
In 2020, CM Revanth Reddy approached the Telangana High Court seeking quashing of the FIR. His counsel argued before the high court that Reddy was
“not present at the scene of the offence”.
After examining the material on record, the high court quashed the criminal case on the ground that the prosecution failed to produce any evidence connecting the accused to the alleged incident.
In an earlier round of proceedings before the Supreme Court, the top court had taken serious note of the scandalous and scurrilous allegations made against the high court judge who had passed the order in favour of the chief minister.
However, the bench later closed the contempt proceedings against N Peddi Raju and two lawyers. The court cautioned them that such behaviour undermines the integrity of the judicial system and must be “strongly deprecated”.
The contempt matter was finally closed after a Telangana High Court judge accepted the apologies tendered by the litigant and his two lawyers.
With this latest order, the Supreme Court has upheld the Telangana High Court’s decision to quash the 2016 FIR against Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, while also making it clear that courts should not become a platform for settling political scores.
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