Andhra govt to approach SC against HC judge's scathing remarks on CM Jagan

The Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday took exception to the scathing observations made by High Court’s Justice Rakesh Kumar against Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and has decided to move the Supreme Court against the judge’s remarks. The court was hearing a petition seeking the judge’s recusal in a case against the Andhra Chief Minister on Wednesday when it said that such a prayer “is simply a contemptuous act and it is highly deprecated.” 

The judge had said in the order that the High Court was under “attack by persons, who are in power,” pointing out that such similar attacks were made on the Legislative Council and State Election Commission in Andhra Pradesh earlier as well. The comments came in the backdrop of Jagan’s allegations in October, that the High Court was being “manipulated” to “destabilise and topple” his government. 

Responding to the court’s observations, Andhra Pradesh Additional Advocate General (AAG) Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy in a statement said that he had been informed about the judge speaking about "unrelated and non-contextual matters" in the order.

"Our legal team has sought for certified copies. While the case which came up for hearing is one thing, the matters which were mentioned in the order by the hon'ble judge are unrelated to the case. Perhaps those are made with personnel vested interests. Hence, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to approach the Supreme Court on such non-contextual speech and unrelated statements," the AAG said.

The AAG further suggested that the judge’s statements were ‘lowering’ the level of High Court judges and the judiciary system. In a brief statement, the AAG also said, “The comments which were made challenging the SC's Collegium were of grave concern." He was referring to the judge’s observations, where he said the Collegium’s decision to transfer Andhra Pradesh HC Chief Justice JK Maheshwari could now affect the progress in the case.

Justice Rakesh Kumar, in his observations, had pointed at the pending criminal cases beside other cases filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against Jagan, where no charges had been framed and said that it was a "mockery of the system." The judge had also referred to YS Jagan's past of being accused in disproportionate assets cases and spending time in jail.

Read: ‘Andhra HC under attack’: Judge makes scathing remarks against CM Jagan