The Andhra Pradesh High Court has initiated contempt proceedings against YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) Member of Parliament Nandigram Suresh and 48 others for making intimidating and abusive social media posts against judges, reports Live Law.
YSRCP leader and Bapatla MP Nandigam Suresh and former member of the Andhra Pradesh legislative Assembly Amanchi Krishnan are among 49 others those who were served the notices by the High Court for attributing motives to judges of the High Court in abusive language. They are also accused of attempting to lower the dignity of the institution of the High Court.
Reportedly, a division bench of the AP High Court comprising of Chief Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice C Praveen Kumar issued orders to the state government to issue notices to all the individuals, including eight who are yet to be identified.
The High Court has asked all the accused to appear before the court in person or through an advocate on June 16. The Court took the action after it received details of social media posts of the accused targeting judges. The Advocate General had also stated that the comments tend to scandalize the institution of judiciary.
“All this shows that there is a larger conspiracy against the judges. It attracts contempt for scandalising and lowering the image of the court and judges,” the court said.
Threats and abusive comments against judges
The attack on the judiciary, especially against the Andhra Pradesh High Court reportedly began after it struck down Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s decision to make English the mandatory medium of instruction in government schools.
However, the situation took an ugly turn after May 22 when the HC had transferred the Dr Sudhakar’s assault case to the CBI. Later, on the same day, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had set aside the suspension of senior IPS officer AB Venkateswara Rao, leaving members of YSR Congress and Chief Minister frustrated.
Causing further shock to YSR Congress government in the state, the High Court had also ordered to seize the premises of LG polymers, in addition to issuing noticed to officials for contempt after they had attributed political motive behind the orders. The HC had also issued notice to Jagan Mohan Reddy’s government on the sale of government land.
The opposition parties had demanded the resignation of the Chief Minister claiming that every step of the government was failing to pass the judicial scrutiny. Former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had said the court gave orders against the government in at least 64 cases.
The High Court also noted in its orders that how Bapatla MP had attributed motives to the court stating that Naidu was managing the High Court, who used to be aware of the judgements it was going to deliver or within 10 minutes of the order being issued.
The bench also referred to one Chendu Reddy’s tweet, which read, “All judges shall be cut into pieces,” and “All judges shall be kept in a room and a corona-positive patient should be left with them.”
In another post shared by one individual named Kishore Reddy Dasari, it was written, “All High Court judges are ba***rds, they are good for nothing except for sleeping with wives. Let them arrest me and order a CBI inquiry.”
