In a significant legal victory for Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, the Supreme Court has upheld the Telangana High Court’s decision to quash an FIR registered against him under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The bench, led by Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice VM Pancholi, dismissed the petition filed by N. Peddiraju. The court observed that the legal machinery should not be exploited for political vendettas and emphasized that the allegations lacked direct evidence to link the Chief Minister to the alleged incident.
The case dates back to January 12, 2016, when Revanth Reddy was an MLA. It was alleged that two individuals, A. Kondal Reddy and E. Lakshmaiah, acting on Revanth Reddy’s instructions, used a JCB to demolish a room in society lands at Gopanpally, Hyderabad. The complainant, Peddiraju, alleged that he was verbally abused with caste-based slurs when he tried to intervene. However, the Supreme Court noted that the witnesses produced by the petitioner had only heard rumors of the CM’s involvement and were not eyewitnesses to him instigating the demolition or the abuse.
The Supreme Court bench remarked that the mere filing of a chargesheet does not necessitate legal action if the underlying evidence is insufficient or based on hearsay. Represented by senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, the state argued that there was no proof of Revanth Reddy’s presence at the site. The court concluded that the petition appeared to be politically motivated and cautioned against the misuse of the judiciary for personal or political gains. This ruling provides a major relief to the Chief Minister, effectively closing a decade-long legal dispute.
