All eyes on Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Reddy files complaint against Justice NV Ramana

Indian judiciary is now caught up in a big dilemma after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy filed a complaint to the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde against the Supreme Court’s No: 2 Judge Justice NV Ramana, who is going to be the next Chief Justice of India. Jagan accuses Justice Ramana of corruption by amassing properties in the name of his two daughters and for his connivance with the opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu along with many Judges in the Andhra Pradesh High Court. This is the first time a Chief Minister has complained against a Supreme Court Judge. Everybody is looking at how Chief Justice SA Bobde will handle this peculiarly difficult situation. Not only for Chief Justice Bobde, but this issue is also a hot potato for the Government of India and the President of India, who is expected to elevate Justice Ramana as next Chief Justice on April 23, 2021. As per the seniority, Justice Ramana will remain as Chief Justice of India for 17 months till August 26, 2022, with stains of these unsettled allegations, which is raised by his home state Chief Minister.

In a detailed eight-page complaint with a lot of dossiers on the land records and allegations of links with Telegu Desam Party leader and former Chief Minister Naidu, the Chief Minister Jagan Reddy accuses that Justice Ramana and set of Judges of Andhra Pradesh High Court are trying to unsettle his Government. The full letter is published below this article. The crux of the letter says that when Naidu was the Chief Minister, huge lands were purchased by him and his people near the new state capital Amaravati and escalated the land price during the announcement of making the area as the capital of the newly created state in 2014. Jagan accuses that the State Government’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) found that more than 4,000 acres of land were purchased by people close to the then Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu and Justice Ramana’s family members also purchased some lands in league with the former Additional Advocate General D Srinivas.

According to the complaint, Jagan says that his Government has demanded Centre a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and there is a petition on this matter before Supreme Court from March 2020. This issue is simmering for the past three months with the ACB registering a case and the High Court passing an order to gag the media from reporting this matter.

Due to High Court’s Gag Order, media was restrained to cover the issue which was simmering for the past few weeks. Now Jagan has blown out that gag order by giving his letter to media on Saturday [1]. Now all eyes are on Chief Justice SA Bobde. After the controversial four senior-most Judges press conference against then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in January 2018, this issue has become a hot topic for the Judiciary, Executive and as well as for Legislature. In the coming days, we have to wait and watch how Chief Justice of India SA Bobde treats this hot potato.

Apart from this, Jagan Mohan Reddy is facing a series of corruption cases in various courts filed by the CBI. Many CBI cases were unleashed on Jagan by the UPA regime after he left Congress after the death of his father former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.

The letter of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy to Chief Justice of India SA Bobde is published below:

Jagan’s letter to CJI.pdf by PGurus

References:
[1] In rare letter to CJI, Andhra CM lists allegations against SC’s Judge No. 2 – Oct 11, 2020, The Indian Express