Amaravati: Justice UU Lalit of the Supreme Court on Monday recused himself from hearing PILs seeking action against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy.
The reason behind the judge’s recusal from the case is that he had represented the chief minister in separate litigations earlier, before his elevation as a judge.
The hearing of the two petitions — one filed jointly by Supreme Court lawyers GS Mani and Pradeep Kumar Yadav, and another by lawyer Sunil Kumar Singh — was adjourned directed to the registry. The petitions sought a show-cause notice against Jagan for making several allegations against Justice NV Ramana, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court after the Chief Justice.
“We direct the Registry to list the matter before the CJI (Chief Justice of India) for appropriate orders to list the matter before a bench of which Justice Lalit is not a member,” the three-judge bench, also comprising Justices Vineet Saran and S Ravindra Bhatt, said.
Jagan Reddy, in a letter to CJI SA Bobde on October 6, alleged that many judges of the Andhra Pradesh high court were biased against the state government and that Justice Ramana was influencing the High Court to “destabilize and topple my democratically elected government”.