Skill development scam: Supreme Court verdict on January 16 on Chandrababu Naidu's plea for quashing FIR
Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce its verdict on Tuesday in a plea filed by former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu seeking to quash the FIR and criminal proceedings against him in the Skill Development scam case.
Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi will deliver the verdict on January 16 at 1 pm on a special leave petition filed by the Naidu against the Andhra Pradesh High Court's order of September 22, 2023, denying him relief.
The top court had reserved the order on the plea for October 17, 2023.
Naidu had approached the top court seeking quashing of the FIR and cited Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, to challenge his arrest by the Andhra Pradesh police's CID in a skill development scam.
He had challenged the High Court judgement rejecting his plea for the quashing of the FIR.
Naidu, however, was granted regular bail in November of last year.
Naidu had sought quashing of the FIR registered by AP-CID in the alleged Rs 371 crore skill development scam on the ground that the police did not obtain prior sanction from the Governor as mandated under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.
The Andhra Pradesh government had objected to Naidu's plea, saying Section 17A of the PC Act can't parachute in cases of alleged corruption leading to loss to the state exchequer that happened before its insertion in the Act on July 26, 2018.
Section 17A, inserted in July 2018 by way of an amendment, requires the investing agencies to obtain prior sanction from the competent authorities for the registration of FIR and initiate «inquiry, enquiry or investigation» against a public servant responsible for the decision or recommendation resulting in loss to the state exchequer and
