There appears to be some kind of relief in the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy administration in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday when Justice Arup Kumar Goswami took over as the new chief justice of the state high court in Vijayawada.
State Governor Biswabhushan Harichandan administered oath of office to Justice Goswami at Tummalapalli Kalakshetram at a brief function which was attended by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, chief secretary Adityanath Das, Director General of Police Gautam Sawang, high court judges and others.
Justice Goswami later left for high court and immediately assumed charge by taking up cases in the division bench along with Justice Praveen Kumar.
All these days, the Jagan government had a tough time with previous chief justice J K Maheshwari, who had been displaying alleged animosity towards the government.
Especially with regard to cases pertaining to insider trading in Amaravati, introduction of English medium in government schools, removal of state election commissioner Nimmagadda Prasad and more importantly, the three capitals issue, the Jagan government received setbacks from Maheshwari bench.
Having no other option, Jagan entered into a direct confrontation with Justice Maheshwari by lodging a complaint with Chief Justice of India S A Bobde in October.
He alleged that the chief justice was acting under the directions of Supreme Court judge N V Ramana, whose daughters were involved in Amaravati land scam.
He complained that Justice Ramana, in collusion with Justice Maheshwari and a few other judges, besides Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu, conspired to topple his democratically-elected government in the state.
It is not exactly known whether newly-appointed chief justice of high court Justice Goswami had any understanding about the cases dealt by Justice Maheshwari, especially with regard to the three capitals issue.
If he can directly deal with the issues, then there will be no problem for Jagan, but if he takes his own time to study the capital issue, there will be further delay in the capital shift.
Sources said Jagan is confident that the new CJ would be sympathetic towards the government and the judgements would be favourable to the government.