After maintaining restraint for over a year, the ruling YSR Congress party in Andhra Pradesh appears to have decided to confront the judiciary again for making unsavoury comments against the Jagan Mohan Reddy government.
The YSRC is peeved at the harsh comments being made by some judges, if not all, during the course of arguments in various cases.
While the Jagan government is maintaining utmost restraint, the party leaders are alleging hat these judges are making political comments which are taken advantage by the opposition parties for their political gains.
On Saturday, one of the judges of the high court judge made some serious comments against the Jagan government for disconnecting the power supply to a granite factor over a disputed pending bill for Rs 43 lakh.
“If power connection to a granite factory was cut for a pending power bill, who has to remove the power of the state government that owes lakhs of crores of rupees to contractors who executed various works for the government?” the judge asked.
The same judge found fault with the government for not paying salaries to the employees and pensions to the pensioners and clearing pending dues to the contractors who completed various public works.
“By not clearing their dues, the government is forcing them to convert into thieves and pick-pocketers,” the judge said.
Another judge criticised the government for alleged diversion of funds meant for Scheduled Castes’ development to the implementation of Navarathnalu schemes. He warned the government of taking action for the contempt of court.
Similar comments were made against the government on the appointment of a large number of advisors. The judge made a sarcastic remark saying the government may even appoint advisors to the mandal revenue officers.
On such occasions, the high court judges made strong comments against the bureaucrats for blindly following the government directions.
Needless to say, these comments made banner headlines in the yellow media and the Telugu Desam Party leaders are quickly spreading the same news to attack the Jagan government.
With these judges taking completely anti-government stand, the YSRC leaders have decided to shoot back.
Former minister and senior YSRC MLC Dokka Manikya Varaprasad asked the judges refrain from making political comments since they could be exploited by vested interests to serve their political purpose.
“With due respect to judiciary, the comments made by honourable judges are being used by political adversaries, organisations and a section of media to serve their political agenda which is not a fair sign. The courts seem to be overstepping the thin line dividing the powers of three Constitutional bodies,” Dokka said.
He said making comments laced with political content about the tenure of the YSRCP government and likely changes in one year or one and half years do augur well for the judiciary.
“A judge remarking that he could not tell his kin where the capital city of Andhra Pradesh is was reported in a section of media. This sends a wrong signal to the people at a time when the issue is pending before Supreme Court,” he observed.
“Should such comments be part of the judgement, we have the right to go for an appeal and it is fair. But sheer remarks will be taken undue advantage by vested interests and such situations would appear to be crossing the boundaries of institutions,” he said.
Stating that the state government had utmost respect for judiciary, the MLC requested the courts to refrain from making political comments which do not form part of the judgement.