Andhra Pradesh CM Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has complained to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) about the intervention and influencing of serving Supreme Court judge Justice N.V. Ramana in the proceedings of the State High Court to benefit a political party and individuals. It has sought the apex court’s consideration to ensure that the state judiciary maintains neutrality. Andhra CM has written an 8-page letter to the CJI in this regard.
Principal Advisor to the Chief Minister, Ajaya Kallam, addressed the media in Vijayawada, releasing the letter written by the Chief Minister to the CJI, which categorically stated that the government has material evidence to show that Justice NV Ramana has been influencing the proceedings of the State High Court which have recently issued orders staying the proceedings of the Cabinet sub-committee and SIT and stay of investigation and the gag order on FIR filed against former Advocate General Dammalapati Srinivas and two daughters of Justice NV Ramana and others.
The names were removed in compliance with the High Court orders in the writ petition in 16468/2020. The case pertains to the purchase of land to large extent abutting the proposed capital region by people in high office and their associates with prior knowledge and has come to be known as Amaravati land scam.
The land deals took place during the term of Chandrababu Naidu. The State has placed material before the CJI, the instances evidencing Justice NV Ramana’s proximity with N Chandra- babu Naidu and his interventions to protect the interests of TDP.
‘The instances of judicial impropriety of Justice NV Ramana, while he was the Judge of High Court, in passing orders favouring Dammalapati Srinivas, was also mentioned.’ The Chief Minister, in his letter dated October 6, 2020, requested the Supreme Court about the acts of a few individual judges and reiterated his government’s abiding compliance with the judiciary, constitution and all institutions.
The eight-page letter written by the Chief Minister mentioned about the material he has enclosed in the annexure to show that ‘Justice NV Ramana has been influencing the High Court including the roster of a few Honourable judges and instances of how matters important to TDP have been allocated to a few Honourable Judges to establish the nexus between Justice NV Ramana, TDP and a few Judges of High Court. The latest one being the orders passed by High Court Chief Justice Maheshwari in WP No 16468 of 2020 filed by Dammalapati Srinivas can lead to no other inference.
However, Former Finance Minis- ter Yanamala Ramakrishnudu has strongly objected to Reddy writing a letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) against the judges and courts, saying that it was like the devil quoting from the scriptures.
He termed it as laughable that CM Jagan, who was A1 in 12 charge sheets of the CBI and 5 charge sheets of the ED wrote the letter to the CJI.
It was unfortunate that on the one hand, the Chief Minister was making a mockery of democracy and the Constitution and undermined the Rule of Law while, on the other hand, he was talking about violations of the same Constitution and democratic institutions, said Ramakrishnudu.