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Andhra politicians use court as battleground

P S Jayaram
13 December 2011 HYDERABAD - The Andhra Pradesh High Court, it seems, is caught in a crossfire following the unprecedented trend of high-profile politicians dragging the judiciary into their political battlefield.
President of the main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) N Chandrababu Naidu and YSR Congress Party chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy are locked in a bitter battle following the High Court ordering Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probes into their assets based on petitions filed by their rivals.
The political bitterness has now spilled over to the courtroom. In a shocking twist to the case pertaining to CBI’s preliminary enquiry into Naidu’s assets, an advocate representing the YSR Congress Party’s honorary president and Jagan’s mother Y S Vijayamma attributed political motives to one of the judges on the division bench, Justice V Eshwaraiah, and refused to argue the case before him.
The division bench, comprising Justice Eshwaraiah and Justice KS Appa Rao, was to hear the review petition filed by Naidu challenging an earlier directive by another division bench ordering CBI probe into his assets acquired during his tenure as the chief minister between 1995 and 2004.
The YSR Congress Party’s counsel Sushil Kumar argued that the close relatives of the judge were active members of the TDP and that he had serious doubts about the credibility of Justice Eshwaraiah’s judgments. He pointed out that the judge had, in the past, delivered several judgments in favour of the TDP.
Following the unprecedented charge, Justice Eshwaraiah recused himself from the case and a new bench will hear the case. In fact, Naidu’s petition was originally meant to be heard by the division headed by Chief Justice M B Lokur. However, he recused himself from the case after Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) impleaded in the case.
The Chief Justice said he was recusing from the case as he held shares in RIL owned by Mukesh Ambani. The RIL had impleaded in the case following the allegation by the petitioner, Vijayamma, that the company was a major beneficiary during Naidu’s regime.
Subsequently, Justice Lokur transferred the case to the bench that included Justice Eshwaraiah. Even this was opposed by Vijayamma’s counsel. The YSR Congress Party spokesman J Prabhakar Rao alleged that Justice Eshwaraiah and his family members had political connections with the TDP.
He pointed out that Justice Eshwaraiah’s wife Shyamala Devi was a zila parishad member of the TDP between 1994 and 1999. His younger brother, Vasu Goud, was a mandal parishad member of the TDP from 2006 to 2011. And his cousin, V Swamy Goud, continues to be the TDP Nalgonda district unit convener.
Clearly, this is a disturbing trend. Senior political analyst and MLC Dr Nageshwar said it was not proper to attribute motives to judges, irrespective of the political affiliations of their family members. “After all, judges have not descended from Mars. They have their own background and political thoughts,” Nageshwar said.