The Supreme Court set aside the Telangana High Court order which issued various directions to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to proceed with the investigation in the alleged Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLAs poaching case and not report before any authority, be it political or executive.

A bench of justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath in its November 21 order said, “The impugned judgment(s) and order(s) dated November 15, 2022, passed by the Division Bench is, therefore, quashed and set aside. The learned Single Judge is requested to consider the writ petition(s) filed by the present petitioner(s) on its own merits and in accordance with the law, as expeditiously as possible and preferably within four weeks from today.”

Telangana High Court on November 15 issued various directions including that SIT shall submit its first report in a sealed cover before the Single Judge of the High Court about the progress of the investigation.

The court was hearing a petition filed by three accused in the case including Ramachandra Bharti challenging the Telangana High Court order.

Senior counsel appearing for the petitioner(s) as well as counsel for the respondent agreed that the matter needs to be reconsidered by the Single Judge on its own merits without being influenced by the observations made by the Division Bench.

The top court said, “We find that some of the directions which are issued by the learned judges of the Division Bench are not sustainable in law.”

The Division Bench, while refusing to transfer the probe to the CBI, had also directed the SIT that it shall not report before any authority, be it political or executive.

The HC also directed that there shall not be any interference by any authority in the investigation by the SIT and Single Judge shall monitor the investigation on the basis of materials including the progress of the investigation to be submitted before him in a sealed cover by the SIT from time to time, as may be directed.

The top court also asked the High Court to consider the bail application, if so filed by the petitioners, expeditiously, since the petitioners are behind the bar for 22 days.