'Don't Dig Up Ghosts, Be Sensitive About Judiciary': Supreme Court In PIL Against Ex-Andhra CM Jagan Over Remarks On Justice Ramana

While hearing a PIL filed against ex-Andhra Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy over his allegations of impropriety against former Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, the Supreme Court today remarked that people should be sensitive atleast towards the judiciary.

The matter was listed before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan, which disposed of an interlocutory application on account of it having become infructuous. In the context of the main matter, Justice Kant posed to the petitioner's counsel,

"who has advised you to unnecessarily rake up all these [things]...don't dig out the ghosts...about judiciary, you people should remain atleast sensitive." When the counsel replied that the case was filed in October, 2020 itself and there was no attempt to "dig-up" things, the bench adjourned the matter to January.

To recap, petitioner-Sunil Kumar Singh initiated the present public interest litigation, claiming that it was improper of a sitting State Chief Minister (Reddy) to make unsubstantiated allegations against a sitting judge of the Supreme Court (Justice Ramana).

He claimed that on October 6, 2020, a letter containing allegations was written by Reddy to then CJI Bobde. Four days later, the letter was circulated in a press conference addressed by Reddy's principal advisor and on October 11, it was published in all English and regional language newspapers.

In the controversial letter, Reddy alleged that Justice Ramana had been "influencing" sittings of Andhra Pradesh High Court, including the roster of a few of its judges to protect the interests of Telegu Desam Party supremo-N Chandrababu Naidu (then erstwhile CM of Andhra Pradesh and Reddy's political rival). Charges of, inter alia, attempting to "destabilize and topple the democratically elected Government of the State of Andhra Pradesh" were levelled against Justice Ramana, who went on to become the 48th CJI.

This unprecedented move by Reddy shocked the general public, as well as the legal fraternity, with advocates' associations across the country strongly condemning the act. Later, an in-house probe by the Supreme Court gave clean chit to Justice Ramana, discarding the allegations made by Reddy.

Case Title: Sunil Kumar Singh v. Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, W.P. (C) No. 1192/2020