Supreme Court stays Andhra Pradesh HC gag order in Amaravati land case

The Supreme Court has stayed an order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court restraining the media from reporting on a case filed by the state anti-corruption bureau against a former legal officer and others for alleged irregularities in land purchase in Amaravati. The apex court said that Andhra Pradesh High Court shall not decide till January end the matter related to alleged irregularities in land transaction in Amaravati.

This year in September, a bench of Chief Justice JK Maheshwari directed that there should be no coercive steps in furtherance to the case filed by officers at the ACB’s Guntur Police Station. The Indian Express reports that the HC had also stayed the investigation and directed that news in regard to the FIR “shall not be made public in any electronic, print or social media…”

Following this, the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government moved the Supreme Court, calling it a “drastic” one in staying the entire investigation. Today, the SC stayed the High Court order on reporting, but refused to stay at this stage the other directions of the HC including the stay on probe into the FIR in the matter.

The top court has sought responses from others including the Director General of Police of Andhra Pradesh and the state’s former advocate general on whose plea the HC had passed the order. The court has posted the matter for hearing in January.

(With inputs from PTI)