Telangana High Court dismisses State govt appeal on MLA poaching case

The division bench of the Telangana High Court held that only the Supreme Court had appropriate jurisdiction to entertain the appeal

Hyderabad: The division bench of the Telangana High Court comprising Chief Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N. Tukaramji on Monday pronounced its order on the State government’s appeal in connection with the MLA poaching case, refusing to interfere with the single judge’s order that transferred the case investigation to the CBI.

The batch of cases were filed by the State government and Tandur MLA Pilot Rohit Reddy, challenging the transfer of investigation from the Special Investigation Team to the CBI. The bench held that only the Supreme Court had appropriate jurisdiction to entertain the appeal. The bench rejected the request of Advocate General BS Prasad to stay the proceedings until the State approaches the Supreme Court.

The bench, pointing out that the single judge had observed that the accused were openly branded as culprits even before the chargesheet was filed, observed that the single judge quashed the investigation carried out by the police while directing the CBI to conduct de novo investigation in exercise of criminal jurisdiction. Therefore, the bench was barred from jurisdiction under the clause 15 of the Letter Patent the panel held. Accordingly, the bench dismissed the appeals as not maintainable.