The contempt case filed by several petitioners in the Supreme Court against YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy for announcing Visakhapatnam as the new capital of the state has taken an interesting turn on Monday.
Attorney General of India R Venkataramani refused to take up the case and give his opinion on whether Jagan had resorted to contempt of court by announcing Visakhapatnam as the capital of Andhra Pradesh, as the issue is now before the Supreme Court.
He was responding to a letter written by advocate and Jai Bheem Party president Jada Sravan Kumar as to whether Jagan’s announcement amounted to contempt of court.
Sravan also wrote to Supreme Court registrar requesting that the court take suo motu cognizance of the contempt of court and take up hearing.
In his reply to the lawyer, the Attorney General said he would not like to give any opinion on the issue as he had earlier argued on behalf of the state government on various issues. He, however, forwarded Sravan’s request to Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta.
If Tushar Mehta gives his opinion against the chief minister, he would have to face the contempt of court case. If the Solicitor General feels that Jagan’s comments are just political and general comments, the Supreme Court might not take up the hearing against him at all.
However, as he has made it clear several times, Jagan is firm on shifting the executive capital to Visakhapatnam.
Though he might make any official decision in this regard pending Supreme Court judgement, he has anyway decided to shift his camp office and residence to Visakhapatnam by next month.