CBI to probe ‘derogatory’ remarks against Andhra judiciary
The bench directed that CBI take up the investigation, initiate proceedings against the people who made such statements and submit a report to the high court within eight weeks.
The Andhra Pradesh high court on Monday ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the abusive posts on social media and alleged derogatory statements made by some YSR Congress Party leaders against the state’s judiciary.
A division bench of the high court, comprising justice Rakesh Kumar and Justice J Uma Devi, observed that since the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police had failed to act against those who had made derogatory comments against the judiciary, it was entrusting the case to CBI for an impartial inquiry.
The bench directed that CBI take up the investigation, initiate proceedings against the people who made such statements and submit a report to the high court within eight weeks. It asked the state government to cooperate with CBI in the probe.
On October 8, the high court concluded arguments on a petition filed by the high court’s registrar general stating that the CID had not taken any steps on complaints over derogatory posts against judges on social media platforms.
According to senior high court advocate Lakshmi Narayana, the high court had observed that the CID filed a first information report (FIR) only against a few social media activists although more than 90 people had been found to have made abusive comments against the judiciary for delivering judgements against the state government.
“The CID also failed to ensure deletion of abusive comments on the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It also did not initiate any action against the YSRC leaders who made comments against the media,” he said.
During the hearing, the high court bench found fault with the alleged remarks made by assembly speaker Tammineni Sitharam, deputy chief minister Narayana Swamy, MPs Vijayasai Reddy and N Suresh and former MLA Amanchi Krishnamohan, among others, against the judiciary.
It observed that they amounted to a direct attack on judiciary.
It also observed that the CID was booking cases against people who criticise the government in social media while not acting on the specific complaint by the HC.
Advocate general S Sriram and CID counsel Niranjan Reddy said they had no objection to the court ordering a CBI probe.
Interestingly, on Saturday evening, the state government released to the media a copy of the letter written by chief minister Jagan Reddy to Chief Justice of India SA Bobde making allegations against the second senior most judge in the apex court, NV Ramana and referring to roster management by the latter in the Andhra High Court.
The letter alleged that several judgements given by the high court were against the state government and attached copies of orders issued in such cases.
