SC quashes Telangana HC order on SIT probe into attempts to poach TRS MLAs

The Supreme Court has set aside the Telangana High Court's order which permitted Special Investigation Team's probe into charges of attempts by alleged BJP agents to poach four MLAs of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Vikram Nath quashed the order by the division bench of November 15 as not sustainable in law.

On November 15, the HC's division bench had refused to transfer the probe to the CBI and asked the SIT under the police commissioner C V Anand to report to it.

On a plea by the accused, the court recorded the submissions by both the parties that the matter was required to be reconsidered by the single judge bench which had already fixed the matter on November 29 without influence by observations made by the division bench.

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The court asked the HC to decide the matter as expeditiously as possible and preferably within four weeks.

The top court, in its order passed on November 21, said, "the approach of the single judge of the High Court in dealing with the present matter was totally untenable."

The court voiced its displeasure with the direction by the High Court for the three accused to surrender.

The bench said the single judge's observation with regard to applicability of Arnesh Kumar judgement by the Supreme Court would not be treated as binding precedent in state of Telangana.

The single judge of the High Court had then said, "A parental guidance by the Supreme Court through the judgment in Arnesh Kumar’s case is thus not a sword of Damocles either in respect of police officers or Magistrates who exercise the power of arrest and remand respectively.”

"With great respect to the learned Judge, such observation is totally unwarranted," the top court said.

"Though, it is always said that the High Court is not a Court to subordinate to the Supreme Court. However, when the High Court deals with judgments of this Court, which are binding on everyone under Article 141 of the Constitution of India, it is expected that the judgments have to be dealt with due respect," the bench said.

The top court asked the single judge bench to consider the bail plea of accused Ramachandra Barathi alias Sathish Sharma V K and others expeditiously as they have been behind the bars for over 22 days.

The Cyberabad police had on October 26 arrested the three accused on charges that they attempted to lure a few TRS MLAs to switch over to the BJP.

An Anti-Corruption Bureau's special court before which they were produced, however, had refused to remand them saying the police had failed to follow the Supreme Court guidelines regarding arrest as laid down in the 2014 ruling in Arnesh Kumar Vs State of Bihar.