In a full-blown war against judiciary in Andhra Pradesh, the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government on Saturday gave a blow-by-blow account of how the state high court judges had passed orders against the government decisions to protect the interests of the TDP led by N Chandrababu Naidu.
Here are some of the instances referred to by the chief minister in his letter to Supreme Court chief justice S A Bobde about the adverse judgements from the high court judges and some judges who tried to favour the TDP:
Amaravati Land Scam: Any FIRs lodged into the investigation of Amaravati Scam are immediately stayed by the High Court.
Justice K Lalitha: She has been protecting the interests of politicians of TDP like former Minister K Atcham Naidu, who was arrested in connection with investigation into the medical scam. She granted bail to Atchan after directing that he be shifted to hospital.
Stay of eviction/demolition process: The high court stayed the orders of erstwhile APCRDA to evict/demolish houses, including that of Naidu on the banks of Krishna river.
Justice D Ramesh: Justice Ramesh was the Special Government Pleader attached to the Advocate General in the previous TDP regime. He granted stay of all further proceedings against Ramesh Hospitals accused in the fire accident in a Covid care centre in Vijayawada.
He also granted stay on the investigation against an official of the State Election Commissioner for offences under the provisions of the Information Technology Act.
Justice Satyanarayana Murthy: He is the trusted person of Justice N V Ramana since the last ten years with open hostility to the government. The Chief Justice has ensured that Justice Satyanarayana Murthy is on the bench along with him in all matters of importance including the Full Bench which is hearing the Capital matters. Justice Murthy is very caustic in his approach and reproaches the Government advocates on a regular basis.
Justice Murthy has also been instrumental in staying the allotment of house site scheme one of the flagship schemes of the State to provide 25 lakhs house sites to people below the poverty line. There are numerous instances where Justice Murthy has vociferously condemned the Government and severely criticized the various beneficial schemes taken up by the State.
Justice Murthy granted stay of an investigation into a crime registered against Dammalapati Srinivas, former Advocate General. Every judicial precedent and elementary principle of jurisprudence is violated by such orders, with a view to protect the interests of TDP members.
Justice D Somayyajulu: He is charged with acts of impropriety and lack of ethical standards. He was a legal advisor to Navayuga Engineering, but he did not recuse from the case on Polavaram project when it was referred to him. He also stayed all proceedings in the constitution of the Special Investigation Team and Cabinet Sub Committee findings.
In many other instances, Jagan said the high court had shown animosity towards him and his government like allegations of phone tapping of high court judges, or admonition of DGP in connection with arrest of Chandrababu Naidu in Visakhapatnam and allegations of Covid-19 guidelines by YSRC MLAs.