Supreme Court Judge Justice Lalit has stepped aside and refused to take up the contempt of court case against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy today. Justice Lalit has excused himself, saying that he cannot hear this case in view of the fact that he has argued for the respondents in the past.
Justice Lalit has suggested that the case be transferred to some other bench of the Apex Court. The Supreme Court bench consisting of Justice Lalith, Justice Uday and Justice Umesh, is supposed to hear the contempt case today. With the stepping aside of Justice Lalith, the case has to be transferred to another bench.
The case is pertaining to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by GS Mani, Pradeep Kumar and SK Singh. They are pleading for removing Jaganmohan Reddy from the CM police as he had misused his position to level baseless allegations against a sitting Judge of Supreme Court and also judges of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh.
The petitioners asked for a deterrent punishment in this respect in order to prevent any such brazen attempt to pass defamatory comments against the courts and the judges. The petitioners have also asked for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the allegations made by the Chief Minister. They also said that the AP CM is facing serious charges in several cases of money laundering and corruption.
