The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a Telangana High Court order closing a criminal case under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 against state Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy after finding no prima facie basis to sustain the charges.
SC upholds HC’s clean chit to T’gana CM in SC/ST caseA bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant passed the order on a petition filed by complainant N Peddi Raju, who approached the apex court challenging the high court’s dismissal of the case in July 2025.
A bench comprising Justices Jayamalya Bagchi and Vipul M Nautiyal observed, “We fall between the lines, how these political battles take place,” observing that the view taken by the High Court was both “probable and reasonable” as the allegations contained no material to establish the role of the sitting Chief Minister.
A criminal case was registered in 2016 by Raju, director of Rajol’s SC Housing Society, who accused Revanth Reddy, his brother Kodanda Reddy and others of alleging caste abuse against him. The High Court said that the complaint had no factual or legal basis as the Chief Minister and the Congress leader were not present at the spot.
“No one has seen him at the spot or seen him talking to anyone. Even if in a situation a person is not there and a miscreant says what is being done at the behest of this person, we can understand. But here it is only hypothetical. And you also have prior conflict with him,” the bench observed.
The order dismissed Raju’s plea, observing, “In our view, the High Court has considered the material and finds no prima facie case to proceed with the matter. In our view, the opinion of the High Court is a reasonable and probable view. The petition is dismissed.”,
Raju had earlier filed a transfer petition seeking transfer of the case outside Telangana against the High Court judge to hear the case. The apex court in an earlier order had strongly objected to the statement made against the judge and cautioned Raju against such behaviour.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, who appeared for the chief minister on Monday, described Raju as a “bold litigant” who had to apologize for his comments against the judge which were recorded in the order that he failed to appear.
While dismissing the case against the Chief Minister named as the third accused, the high court observed that the complaint had no factual or legal basis as Revanth Reddy was not present at the alleged incident on January 12, 2016. The court also observed that Raju’s allegations were not supported by evidence and went to quash the trial of the case pending before the Special Court.
