Supreme Court refuses plea on Tirumala laddu SIT review
The Supreme Court refused to entertain Subramanian Swamy’s plea challenging Andhra Pradesh’s decision to appoint a committee to review the SIT report on the Tirumala laddu controversy. The bench said the enquiry does not overlap with criminal proceedings and both can continue
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea filed by Subramanian Swamy challenging the Andhra Pradesh government’s decision to appoint a one-member committee to review the Special Investigation Team (SIT) report on the Tirumala laddu controversy.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymala Bagchi was hearing Swamy’s plea, which also assailed statements made by the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister on the row.
CJI Surya Kant said, “Such an administrative enquiry cannot be called overlapping with the criminal proceedings which led to the chargesheet and supplementary chargesheet. There is no conflict of interest or overlapping, and the scope of the investigation and enquiry, having been well demarcated, shows that the apprehension of the petitioner does not have a solid foundation. Let both processes continue strictly in accordance with the law,” the court said.
Swamy argued that the state government’s move undermines the authority of the SIT, which was constituted earlier by the Supreme Court itself to probe irregularities surrounding the laddus distributed by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD).