SC judge recuses himself from hearing pleas against Andhra Pradesh CM

Supreme Court judge U.U. Lalit on Monday recused himself from hearing pleas seeking action against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy for levelling allegations against the judiciary. Justice Lalit suggested that the case be transferred to some other bench of the apex court.

“I have difficulty in hearing this… I cannot take up this matter. As a lawyer I represented some of these parties,” Justice Lalit addressed the petitioners.

The SC is supposed to hear the contempt case. With the stepping aside of Justice Lalith, the case has to be transferred to another bench. The Bench then recorded a short order, requesting Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde to list the case before an appropriate Bench.

The case is about a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by G.S. Mani, Pradeep Kumar and S.K. Singh. They are pleading for removing Jaganmohan Reddy from the CM post as they felt that he had misused his position to level baseless allegations against a sitting judge of the Supreme Court and also judges of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh.

The pleas alleged that CM Reddy not only wrote a letter to CJI Bobde levelling allegations against the judiciary but also held a press conference in which false statements were made.

The petitioners asked for a deterrent punishment in this respect to prevent any such brazen attempt to pass defamatory comments against the courts and the judges. The petitioners have also asked for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the allegations made by the Chief Minister. They also said that the AP CM is facing serious charges in several cases of money laundering and corruption.