(Image source from: Twitter.com/JaiTDP)

Supreme Court's verdict on Chandrababu's plea in Skill Development Scam:- The plea made by former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu to dismiss the FIR filed against him regarding the alleged misuse of funds for a State Skill Development Corporation project was rejected by the Supreme Court on Tuesday. However, the bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi had different opinions regarding the applicability of section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. They ordered that the matter be presented to the Chief Justice of India for appropriate guidance. Section 17A, which was added to the Act in July 2018, states that a police officer must obtain approval from the competent authority before conducting an inquiry or investigation into offenses related to recommendations or decisions made by a public servant in the course of their official duties.

Justice Bose believed that the requirement of approval should also apply to offenses committed before 2018, meaning that Naidu could not be prosecuted for offenses under Section 13(1)(c), 13(1)(d), and 13(2) of the 1988 Act without prior approval. However, he noted that this does not invalidate the remand order, as the approval could still be sought.

According to Justice Trivedi, the provision Section 17A cannot be applied retroactively in the interpretation. The leader of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was apprehended by the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for his involvement in the multi-crore AP Skill Development Corporation scandal on September 9 of the previous year. Subsequently, the Andhra Pradesh High Court granted him bail on November 20. Naidu is the main suspect in the case, which supposedly entails the transfer of Rs 371 crore of government funds to fictitious companies during the TDP's administration.