Supreme Court stays HC order faulting CBI chief in Tirupati laddu probe

Hearing an appeal by the CBI director challenging the High Court order, Chief Justice of India B R Gavai, heading a bench also comprising Justices K Vinod Chandran and N V Anjaria, asked, “If SIT wants to appoint a particular officer, what is wrong with that?”.

The counsel for Kaduru Chinnappanna, the original petitioner before the Andhra Pradesh High Court, said that, given the October 4, 2024, order, inclusion of any outside official in the SIT would be in breach of the SC directions.

But the CJI asked “whether the SIT has done away with the supervision of the investigation or abdicated its jurisdiction”, and added that “it is only appointing an investigating officer, who is working within its control.”

Appearing for CBI, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said “SIT is doing its work” and the “investigating officer is only a record keeper”

Taking exception to Mehta’s submission, the counsel for Chinnappanna said the officer recruited by the SIT should not proceed in the meantime.

However, CJI Gavai said, “Therefore, we are again asking you whether the SIT constituted by this court has stopped functioning? Can’t it delegate some of its functions to a subordinate officer?”

Chinnappanna had approached the High Court contending that the officer, J Venkat Rao, who was not part of the original SIT, had pressured him to make false statements on video as part of the investigation.

The High Court agreed with the argument that Rao could not have investigated, as he was not part of the original SIT.