Attorney General KK Venugopal’s consent sought to initiate contempt against Andhra CM YS Jaganmohan Reddy Letter states that if this kind of precedent is allowed, political leaders will start making reckless allegations against judges
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Attorney General KK Venugopal’s consent sought to initiate contempt against Andhra CM YS Jaganmohan Reddy
Letter states that if this kind of precedent is allowed, political leaders will start making reckless allegations against judges
Debayan Roy
Oct 25, 2020, 7:53 PM IST
A Supreme Court lawyer and a BJP leader has written a letter to Attorney General KK Venugopal seeking consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minsiter YS Jaganmohan Reddy and his principal advisor Ajeya Kallam.
Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay has stated in his letter that the letter by Reddy to CJI SA Bobde making allegations against Justice NV Ramana of the Supreme Court and other judges scandalized the authority of both the Supreme Court and High Court.
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Upadhyay states that “if this kind precedent were allowed, political leaders would start making reckless allegations against judges who do not decide cases in their favour and this trend would soon spell the death knell of an independent judiciary.”
The consent sought from AG is under Section 15(1)(b) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 read with Rule 3 of the Rules to Regulate Proceedings for Contempt of the Supreme Court, 1975.
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The letter states that Andhra CM is himself an accused in at least 31 cases concerning the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act that is pending before the Special Court situated under the jurisdiction of the State of Telangana.
“He has been granted bail and continues to discharge his duties as a public servant while these trials are on,” says Upadhyay.
Referring to the plea filed by Upadhyay seeking to establish special courts to try cases against MPs and MLAs, the letter states that the top court was informed by State of Telangana in October that day to day trial of cases against legislators would commence and that Reddy is “directly affected” by this as he is also a MLA who face cases.
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Citing contents from the letter by Reddy to CJI where detailed allegations have been levelled on Justice NV Ramana, the letter seeking consent states that such a letter to CJI was “scurrilous” and attempts to interfere with the course of his plea seeking expeditious trial against legislators.
The audacious assault by the Chief Minister and Kellam on the judiciary of the country is without precedent. The timing of the letter, the contents of the same, the rush to spill it to the public while the matter was pending with the Chief Justice and the separate Statement read out by Shri Kellam make it manifestly clear that this was done to interfere with the course of justice and lower the authority of the court.
Says Upadhyay in his letter
Substantiating a contempt case against Kellam, the letter states that the principal advisor “is a senior IAS officer and ought to know better about the consequences of releasing such material to the press”.
“He also purported that the contents of the Statement he read out (not the letter) reflect the views of the State of Andhra Pradesh,” says Upadhyay.
