Andhra High Court Initiates Contempt Proceedings Against YSR Congress MP, 48 Others For Threatening Judges

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has initiated contempt proceedings against YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) member of Parliament Nandigram Suresh and 48 others for intimidating judges of the Supreme Court and the High Court, besides using abusive language against them.

YSRCP leader and former member of the Andhra Pradesh legislative Assembly Amanchi Krishnan is among those against whom the High Court has asked the ruling YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government to issue notices for their comments and social video posts lowering the dignity of the court.

Deccan Chronicle reported that the court also found them attributing motives to at least half a dozen rulings of the apex and high courts.

The orders were passed by a two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice J K Maheshwari and Justice C Praveen Kumar.

The identity of eight persons is yet to be ascertained.

The judges observed: “All this shows that there is a larger conspiracy against the judges. It attracts contempt for scandalising and lowering the image of the court and judges.”

Advocate-General S Sriram went through the videos and social media posts and felt the comments were “unwarranted and scandalous”.

The courts have been criticised from the time the High Court struck down the Reddy government’s proposal of making English as the medium of instruction in government schools.

Some people even came up with social media posts threatening the judges on this issue.

Besides this, the High Court has been attacked for ordering a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the issue of anaesthetist Dr Sudhakar being taken into custody by police using force.

The doctor had been suspended for charging the government with not providing personal protective equipment while attending to novel Coronavirus patients.

The CBI has been given eight weeks’ time to probe the case.

The High Court’s setting aside the suspension of a senior police official, A B Venkateswara Rao, ordering the seizure of LG Polymers India premises in Vizag where a gas leak killed 12 people, ordering contempt proceedings for painting of government offices with YSRCP colours, and issuing notices to the government on the sale of government land, has apparently irked the Jagan Reddy government.

In particular, Suresh, who represents the Bapatla Lok Sabha Constituency for YSRCP, told news channel Sakshi that former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu was managing the High Court and he got to know the verdicts either before hand or in no time after they were delivered.

The judges found the comments objectionable as also a tweet by a person called Chendu Reddy, who wanted them to be cut into pieces or “kept in a room and a corona-positive patient should be left with them”.

Another person, Kishore Reddy, had made disparaging remarks against the judges in his Facebook posting.