Justice U.U. Lalit Recuses Himself from Hearing PIL Seeking Removal of YS Jagan Reddy as Andhra CM

Justice Uday Umesh Lalit on Monday recused himself from hearing the PIL seeking the removal of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy from the post of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister for blatantly criticising the second senior-most judge of the Supreme Court NV Ramana. Justice Lalit cited a likely conflict of interest scenario as a reason for his aforesaid decision.

"As a lawyer, I had represented these parties in litigation. I cannot take up this matter. Let this matter be listed at the earliest before any other judge decided by the CJI." - Justice U.U Lalit.

The Supreme Court will today hear a PIL seeking the removal of YS Jaganmohan Reddy from the post of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister over his "scandalising" remarks against the second senior-most judge of the top court.

A bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, will on Monday hear the public interest litigation that also sought an explanation from Reddy for writing a letter to Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde making "wild and reckless" allegations against Justice NV Ramana.

Petition filed by two lawyers sought Reddy's removal  from the Post of CM

Two lawyers namely, GS Mani and Pradeep Kumar Yadav, filed a petition seeking the removal of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy for making allegations against a sitting judge of the Apex Court. 

The plea stated that Reddy has no right to misuse his constitutional post for scandalising the judicial system by sending a communication to the Chief Justice of India.  

Pointing to Reddy's past, the plea stated that Reddy himself faces a plethora of cases, including those related to money laundering and corruption.  

His use of the constitutional post to level "false, vague, political and scandalized remarks and allegations openly in the public and media" against a sitting judge, makes him liable to be deemed unfit to continue in his post.  

Another petition was filed in the Supreme Court that sought directions to refrain Reddy from making public statements or holding press conferences to malign the “august institution of the Supreme Court” and its judges. 

"In order to get personal gain from the court by abusing his power and post as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, he allegedly openly made false, scandalised remarks, vague, and political allegations against a sitting judge of the top court only to tarnish the image of the judiciary in the public mind

Reddy wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India making strong claims against Justice Ramana

For the initiated, Reddy had sent a detailed letter to Chief Justice of India SA Bobde. in the letter he alleged that Justice Ramana started influencing the course of administration of justice in the state through Andhra Pradesh High Court judge Jitendra Kumar Maheswari, ever since his YSC Congress Party came to power in the state in May 2019 and ordered an enquiry into the “actions of N Chandrababu Naidu in his regime between 2014-2019”.