The ongoing tussle in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh between Jagan and Chandrababu camps has brought the judiciary into sharp focus. While the courts have never been totally free of criticism over their functioning, this is the first time that the perceived lack of dispassion on the part of individual judges is being talked about so openly and brazenly.
During the recent spat between Naidu and Jagan in the High Court, both the parties appeared to be very ‘sensitive’ to some individual Justices, This suspicious approach reflected in the way they tackled their respective presentation of cases. The TDP chief tried to avoid a few benches through the practice ‘not before’. Jagan evidently resorted to build up pressure on Justices against giving an unfavourable decision in his favour.
Jagan’s lawyer from Delhi Sushil Kumar’s affront to the Justice Eswaraiah bench earlier and Justice Rohini bench currently is being frowned upon by many legal practitioners as being over the board.
However, Jagan supporters, who include lawyers, have always been complaining that Chandrababu Naidu’s sphere of influence on the High Court was considerable, which he had allegedly nurtured during his stint as Chief Minister. Senior journalist K Ramachandra Murthy went to the extent of hinting that Naidu’s showered favours on judges during his tenure, as a result of which cases against his government were squashed.
“Naidu, during his nine years in power, pampered judges with luxury cars and perks. Till then judges were being picked up and dropped by pool cars. It may be a coincidence but most of the cases against the TDP government were squashed during that period”, he said an article in The Hans India.
However, YSR was relatively ‘clean’ in this regard, according to Murthy.
“YS Rajasekhara Reddy, who succeeded Naidu, did not show much interest in befriending the judiciary but his friends were at it. The list of advocates, who were recommended by the HC collegium for promotion as judges, which was rightly rejected by the Supreme Court, is an indication of the decay that has set in.”
However, Jagan seems to have gone a little too far by writing recklessly about the individual judges and attributing motives to them. It will be interesting to see how the High Court will deal with a situation like this. The much awaited decision on Chandrababu vacate petition is likely to kick off another round of shadow boxing with judiciary as punch bag!
