E-Paper
SC upholds HC’s clean chit to T’gana CM in SC/ST case
The Supreme Court upheld a Telangana high court ruling that dismissed a case against CM A Revanth Reddy, citing lack of evidence for the allegations.
The Supreme Court on Monday upheld an order of the Telangana high court closing a criminal case against state chief minister A Revanth Reddy under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 finding no prima facie ground to sustain the allegations.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant passed the order on a petition filed by the complainant N Peddi Raju who approached the top court challenging the dismissal of the case by the high court in July 2025.
“We read in between lines, how these political battles take place,” observed the bench, also comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Nautiyal observing that the view taken by the high court was both “possible and plausible” as the allegations were inferential in nature with no material to establish the role of the present CM.
The criminal case was registered in 2016 by Raju, the director of SC Housing Society in Razole who accused Revanth Reddy, his brother Kodanda Reddy among others for making allegations of caste abuse against him. The high court held that the complaint lacked any factual or legal basis as the CM and Congress leader was not present at the spot.
“Nobody saw him at the spot or had seen him confer with anyone. Even if in a situation, a person is not there and a miscreant states that what is being done is at the instance of this person, we can understand. But here it is only inferential. And you also have an earlier disput with him,” the bench observed.
The order went on to dismiss Raju’s petition, observing, “In our view, the high court has considered the material and found no prima facie case for proceeding with the matter. In our view, the opinion of the high court is both a plausible and possible view. The petition is dismissed.”,
Raju had earlier filed a transfer petition seeking transfer of the case outside Telangana making scurrilous allegations against the high court judge hearing the matter. The top court in an earlier order had taken strong objection to statements made against the judge and had warned Raju for such conduct.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra appearing for the CM on Monday described Raju as an “adventurous litigant” observing that for his remarks against the judge, he had to apologise which is recorded in the order which he has failed to produce.
The high court while quashing the case against the CM, named as the third accused, found that the complaint lacked any factual or legal basis as Revanth Reddy was not present at the alleged incident on January 12, 2016. The court further observed that the allegations of Raju were not supported by evidence and went on to quash proceedings arising out of the matter pending before the Special Sessions Judge at LB Nagar.
