A Supreme Court judge Justice S V N Bhatti on Wednesday recused himself from hearing former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s petition seeking quashing of the FIR lodged against him in the alleged skill development scam case.
Telugu Desam Party Chief Naidu is under arrest in connection with the alleged scam.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Naidu, told the apex court bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna that he would request the CJI for urgent hearing on the matter during the day.
However, with Justice Bhatti recusing himself, the matter would be sent back to the CJI, who will assign a bench for the hearing.
Naidu moved the Supreme Court on Saturday challenging his arrest and the FIR registered against him in the alleged Rs 371 crore scam case.
Naidu approached the top judiciary a day after the Andhra Pradesh High Court dismissed his petition saying that it couldn’t interfere in the case, since the “investigation is on fulcrum of attaining finality”.
Justice Sreenivasa Reddy of the AP HC, while dismissing Naidu’s petition, said the investigating agency examined more than 140 witnesses and collected about 4,000 documents under the registration of the crime in 2021. Therefore, the court was not inclined to interfere with the proceedings.
