Yet another judge of Andhra Pradesh high court, who had been a thorn in the flesh of YSR Congress party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy for the last four years, is retiring from service on Monday.
Justice D V S S Somayajulu, who delivered several judgements embarrassing the Jagan government, would be stepping down from his services on attaining the age of superannuation on Monday evening. He would given a ceremonial send off by his colleagues and other judicial officers at the high court premises.
Justice Somayajulu was one of the judges against whom Jagan had lodged a complaint with former Chief Justice of India S A Bobde in October 2020, the other being then Supreme Court judge N V Ramana, former chief justice of high court Justice A K Maheshwari, Justice A V Sesha Sai, Justice M Satyanarayana Murthy and Justice D Ramesh.
Jagan had alleged that these judges were part of the conspiracy hatched by Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu to destabilise his government. The petition, on which the CJI had conducted an internal inquiry, was dismissed subsequently.
Subsequently, these judges delivered several judgements that went against the Jagan government, including Amaravati insider trading scam, introduction of English medium in government schools, three capitals legislation, appointment of advisors to the government etc.
While Justice Maheswari was shifted to Sikkim, Justice Ramesh was transferred to Allahabad. Justice Satyanaryana Murthy retired from service in June 2022.
In August this year, Justice Ch Manavendranath Roy, who also delivered judgements against the Jagan government in several issues like construction of houses in R-5 zone of Amaravati, quashing of sedition case against Raghu Ramakrishna Raju and another case against Dammalapati Srinivas etc, was transferred to Gujarat high court.
While Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, who gave the landmark judgement on Amaravati in March 2022, was transferred on elevation to Supreme Court. Other judges like Justice Rakesh Kumar, who made pungent comments against Jagan also retired.
Only Justice Sesha Sai, who has been giving anti-government judgements, is still in service in Andhra Pradesh high court.
