HYDERABAD: In a setback to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, the special CBI Court in Hyderabad on Friday dismissed his petition for exemption from personal appearance before the court and to allow his advocate to appear on his behalf during the hearings in the alleged disproportionate assets case. Jagan filed an exemption petition under Section 205 of the CrPC.
The court, which had reserved its order on the petition on October 18, pronounced it on Friday. It is learnt that Jagan, who is the prime accused in the said case, is expected to move the High Court challenging the order of the CBI court. Till then, he is expected to file an interim application before the court seeking to grant exemption from appearance on the day of case hearing citing reasons that he is unable to attend the court in order to discharge his constitutional duties as State Chief Minister and to attend other important programmes.
According to sources, following the CBI court’s verdict, Jagan has to now appear before the CBI court in every case hearing though he is serving as the state chief minister. Leaders including J Jayalalithaa, Madhu Koda, Lallu Prasad Yadav and several others like TDP leader P Ramasubba Reddy and others have also appeared before the courts in their respective cases while serving as chief ministers and ministers, respectively.
Jagan had been filing petitions pleading for exemption from weekly hearing into the cases since he became the Chief Minister in May. The Court took such applications into consideration and dispensed with his appearance till date. In general, all the accused will sit in the court hall during the case hearings and have to sit till the conclusion of the case hearing for the day. Unless the court dispenses with their attendance on the day of case hearing, all the accused have to appear before it irrespective of their position and post. At present, Telangana minister P Sabitha Reddy is also appearing before the court during the case hearing every Friday.
Principal special judge for CBI cases BR Madhusudhan Rao dismissed the exemption petition saying that the reasons shown by the petitioner were not rationale. The judge agreed with the contention of the CBI that there was no change in circumstances of the above case and there was change only in personal capacity of the petitioner (Jagan) which cannot be deemed as change in circumstances of the case.
During the course of hearing earlier, CBI special counsel K Surender pointed out that the High Court and CBI Court have already dismissed the petitioner’s plea in the same case, as such the court cannot review its own order. As all are equal before the law, the petitioner though becoming chief minister has to appear before the court during every case hearing.
Seeking exemption from personal appearance on the ground that he is the CM is not correct and it is in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. In fact, several state chief ministers and ex-chief ministers in the country have appeared before the court in their respective cases, he noted. The CBI counsel contended that exemption to the accused involved in serious economic offences would send wrong signals to the society. The petitioner has to appear for a fair trial of the case, he added and urged the court to dismiss the plea.
On the other hand, senior counsel S Niranjan Reddy, appearing for Jagan, submitted that the petitioner is in a constitutional post and needs to attend several important programmes, and urged the trial court to grant exemption from personal appearance and to allow his advocate Ashok Reddy to appear on his behalf during the case hearing. In fact, there would be about `60 lakh expenditure towards each visit to the court by the petitioner, he stated.
Jagan not the first to appear before CBI court
Leaders including J Jayalalithaa, Madhu Koda, Lallu Prasad Yadav and several others like TDP leader P Ramasubba Reddy have also appeared before the courts in their respective cases while serving as CM’s and ministers respectively.