The gag order issued by the Andhra Pradesh high court last month restraining the media from publishing the contents of a First Information Report filed by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) in Amaravati land scam involving former advocate general and a sitting judge of Supreme Court has created ripples in legal and media circles.
The media particularly strongly protested against the order stating that it was an infringement on the freedom of expression. The Jagan Mohan Reddy government also filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the order.
But on Saturday, the high court itself declared that its order restraining the media from publishing the contents of the FIR in Amaravati land scam has become invalid.
The high court was acting on a petition filed by a Telangana advocate stating that she had every right to know the contents of the FIR.
She wanted separate orders on the same. However, the high court said there was no need for issuing any separate orders on the same, since the contents of the FIR had already come out in the letter written by the chief minister to chief justice of India.
Though the high court did not make any comment on the letter written by Jagan, it said whatever was prevented from being published in the media had been disclosed by the chief minister’s advisor in his press conference.
“So, the order issued by the court stopping the media from publishing the FIR has now become infructuous. So, there is no need for any separate orders, as the contents are already out,” the high court observed.
It is for the first time that the high court has reacted, albeit indirectly, on Jagan’s letter, in which he accused some judges along with Supreme Court judge of trying to topple his government with the collusion of TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu.
However, the high court did not make any comments on Jagan’s letter, but indirectly expressed its unhappiness over the leakage of the letter to the media.
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