The Andhra Pradesh High Court today rejected the request for sharing the contents of the preliminary report submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) while allowing time for the counsel of Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and other respondents to file counters on the merits of the case against them based on the available material.
The court also allowed the CBI to further investigate the case and asked it to submit the additional inquiry report by Monday, the day when the division bench headed by Chief Justice Nisar Ahmed Kakru posted the case for next hearing. The entire proceedings on Wednesday centered around revealing the contents of the report.
“Why not we directly investigate into the whole problem?” the chief justice asked the counsel of Jagan when he sought copies of the report and said the inquiry was only meant for their own assistance.
Senior Supreme Court lawyer Ashok Bhan, who appeared on behalf of other respondents, argued that the apex court had taken the counsel into confidence by sharing the contents of the CBI report through in-camera proceedings in the Jain hawala case for the purpose of establishing criminal culpability of the accused.
Refusing to buy that argument, Justice Kakru stated that the court had been examining the merits of the case on the basis of available material and not the preliminary report. “We did not even open the sealed cover submitted by the CBI,” he said waving the covers containing the said report. The bench observed that the question of sharing the contents with the respondents arose only when it is used against them.
When another lawyer said the Supreme Court in its observations mentioned about the principles of natural justice in supplying the copies of the investigative report to the respondents, the judge curtly said,”Show me the orders.”
The lawyers also pointed out that they had filed counters in the case only on the question of maintainability of the petition and not on the merits of the case. To this, the bench responded by asking them to file the counters by Monday.
The division bench also refused the request of the advocates appearing in the APIIC- Emaar group case to hear their case on a separate day. Justice Kakru said the very purpose of bringing the two separate petitions to the same bench was to hear both the cases together. The court allowed the CBI to further investigate the Emaar case as well.
