The All India Lawyers’ Union (AILU) has written a letter to Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde seeking an inquiry into the allegations made by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy against Supreme Court Judge Justice N.V. Ramana and some judges of the Andhra Pradesh High Court at the earliest, through the in-house mechanism as per the extant rules and conventions, and requesting him to take remedial action that may be required.
If the allegations were found to be baseless, stringent action should be taken against the Chief Minister for casting aspersions on the judiciary, AILU national vice-president S. Rajendra Prasad and national secretary N. Srinivasa Rao said.
They said the letter by the Chief Minister was unprecedented and it was also the first time that the Andhra Pradesh High Court filed a writ petition (No. 9166/2020) in the same High Court alleging intimidation of the Judges through abusive statements and attributing of motives by various persons, including Constitutional functionaries.
A Division Bench of the High Court on October 12 ordered CBI investigation into all the FIRs registered in the matter. What happened amounted to interfering with the functioning of the judiciary, they said.
The scenario also manifested systemic and structural weakness of the judiciary in protecting its independence and accountability.
It is in such context that the need for National Judicial Commission came into the picture, having comprehensive powers for selection, appointment, transfer and enquiry into misdemeanor / misconduct of judges of the Constitutional courts, the AILU office-bearers observed.
