Under pressure from his Cabinet colleagues, Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has assured them that he won’t be hasty about accepting the resignation of roads and buildings minister Dharmana Prasada Rao and also about giving sanction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute him. Majority of the council of ministers met the Chief Minister at his Camp Office on Tuesday morning and requested him to reject the resignation and the CBI’s petition.
“The Chief Minister told us that he would consult legal experts before taking any decision,” finance minister Anam Ram-narayan Reddy told waiting newsmen at the camp office after their meeting. The ministers had even prepared a note containing a legal expert’s opinion on the whole affair which they submitted to Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy and requested him to get the whole affair examined by the attorney-general and the solicitor-general of India, and others if needed, before finalising his decision.
They extensively quoted earlier Supreme Court rulings on similar cases in the note which mentioned that as per Article 163 of the Constitution, the Council of Ministers’ decisions cannot be questioned by any court. The CBI, for the first time, had sought sanction from the government to prosecute Mr Prasada Rao who was chargesheeted and named as an accused in the Vanpic deal pertaining to Kadapa MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s illegal investment case.
The Chief Minister and his Council of Ministers will have to take a decision on the CBI’s request and “advice” the Governor accordingly. The legal opinion in the note stated: “If the Council of Ministers advises the Governor not to sanction the prosecution of the minister and if the Governor acts accordingly, the CBI cannot prosecute him. The investigating agency (here CBI) has to necessarily establish the quid pro quo and the bias including the benefit garnered by the person who is accused of bribery or corruption in the said context.
The decisions made by the Cabinet during Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s regime is a collective decision of the Cabinet and each of the minister signing the files as the head of that particular department has only carried out the executive function in implementing the policy laid down by the Cabinet and no individual liability can be fastened on him.”