Ex-AP High Court Judge Moves Supreme Court Against HC Order For Probe Into Phone Call Conspiracy Against CJ & SC Judge

The Special Leave Petition filed through Advocate Prashant Bhushan states the impugned order was passed on the basis of an application for reopening and intervention filed by the suspended District Munsif Magistrate, Mr. S. Ramakrishna, in an "unrelated PIL" pending before the High Court, seeking implementation of COVID guidelines in the High Court.

It is alleged that on the above intervention, the High Court "without even issuing notice to the petitioner", proceeded to order an enquiry into the conversation on the basis that it discloses a conspiracy to malign and a plot against the judiciary.

The impugned order was passed on August 13 by a division bench of Justices M. Satyanarayana Murthy and Lalitha Kanneganti of the High Court which took took cognisance of the phone conversation. Observing that the conversation revealed "a conspiracy against the Chief Justice and a senior most judge of the Supreme Court", the division bench requested former Supreme Court judge Justice R V Raveendran to inquire into the matter.

In the Special Leave Petition filed in the SC, Justice Eswaraiah states that in the impugned conversation, he merely mentioned his knowledge about allegations of misconduct of the Supreme Court Judge and had asked the District Munsif Magistrate if he had any more information about this misconduct.

It is stated that this matter has already been a subject matter of an enquiry by the cabinet subcommittee and even a FIR was registered against it. Thus, "it was legitimate for the petitioner to seek any further information about the misconduct of the Judge from anyone who might be Privy to such information. Terming such a conversation to be some sort of a criminal conspiracy to destabilize the judiciary which needs an investigation is totally unwarranted."

"In fact the misconduct which he (Justice Eswaraiah) was talking about was the Subject matter of an enquiry by the cabinet subcommittee regarding dubious property transactions for unlawful gain, also involving the said sitting Supreme Court Judge and other public servants at the helm of affairs in the erstwhile Government in Andhra Pradesh," the plea states.

He has stated that the transcript that was provided by Mr. Ramakrishna is inaccurate and therefore misleading with respect to various aspects of the conversation. It is further submitted that the audio clip was leaked to the ABN News channel to tarnish his image and defame him with their false propaganda, with a calculated motive of exposing him to hatred.

It is urged that the High Court has erroneously held that the petitioner seeking more information, regarding a fact that is already in the public domain and under investigation by the Government and further is the subject matter of an FIR, would amount to a conspiracy to malign the judges concerned or a plot against the judiciary.

The petitioner has prayed that the enquiry directed by the High Court be stayed as it is unwarranted and illegal, in that it is being conducted without the High Court giving notice to the Petitioner and is causing undue harassment to the petitioner.

Recently, the Andhra CM Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy accused Justice N V Ramana, who is next in line to be the Chief Justice of India, of influencing the administration of justice in the High Court.

Contempt proceedings against this action are pending before the Supreme Court. In the last hearing, Justice UU Lalit has recused himself from hearing stating that as a lawyer, he had represented parties in this matter in litigations.

Last week, the Supreme Court had lifted the gag order passed by the Andhra Pradesh High Court against media reportage and social media comments about the Amaravati land scam FIR which names as accused the former Advocate General of the AP and the relatives of Justice Ramana.