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Plea in SC seeks action against Andhra CM for press conference against judiciary
The petition filed by a lawyer prayed that a direction be issued to Andhra CM not to make insinuations before public or to the media against judges of the Supreme Court.
A petition was filed before the Supreme Court on Monday seeking action against Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in relation to a press conference held by the YSR Congress government making allegations against sitting judges of Andhra Pradesh High Court and the Supreme Court.
The petition filed by a lawyer, advocate Sunil Kumar Singh, prayed that a direction be issued to Reddy not to make insinuations before public or to the media against judges of the Supreme Court.
“Issue a direction against the respondent (Reddy) to not make such a statement in future or conduct any public or press briefing either himself or through his subordinate or agent to malign the institution of Supreme Court and judges of the Supreme Court,” the petition said.
The petition said that Reddy has violated Articles 121 and 211 of the constitution which mandate that conduct of judges of Supreme Court or high courts in relation to the discharge of his/ her duty shall not be discussed in parliament or state assembly.
Also read: Andhra HC orders CBI to act against YSR leaders, others who attacked judges
“The respondent is under oath to bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India. He is duty-bound to respect the judiciary. But by the conduct of the respondent, the faith of the public at large is shaken. The conduct of the respondent is nothing but an attempt to de-stabilise the duly established democratic setup of our country,” it was submitted.
In a press conference held by CM’s principal advisor Ajeya Kallam on October 10, the state government had accused Supreme Court judge NV Ramana and the state high court of attempting to destabilise and topple the YSR Congress government in the state in connivance with Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu.
A letter written by Reddy to Chief Justice of India SA Bobde was also made public at the press conference. In the letter, the chief minister had alleged that many judges of the high court were biased against the state government and Supreme Court judge justice Ramana was influencing the high court roster and getting cases against the state government listed before such judges
In his letter to CJI Bobde, Reddy referred to Justice Ramana’s proximity to Naidu. Justice Ramana is “influencing the sittings of the High Court including the roster and matters important to the TDP have been allocated to a few” judges, it added.
The government alleged that the state high court has entertained several writ petitions against the Reddy government’s decisions, including a bill on the creation of three capitals bills, to protect the vested interests in Amaravati, the new capital identified by the Naidu government that was previously in power in the state.
Singh submitted before the top court that while criticism of judgments of the court and the reasoning adopted in the judgments is permissible, such criticism cannot take the form of personal attack on individual judges
“Issue show cause notice to the respondent (Reddy) as to why suitable action not be taken against him,” the petition stated.
The act of respondent calls for immediate action from the Supreme Court to tackle this unprecedented situation and guidelines must be framed to tackle and handle such irresponsible activities, it added.
