NEW DELHI: Even as the controversy surrounding Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy’s letter to Chief Justice of India S A Bobde containing allegations against Supreme Court judge Justice N V Ramana continues to rage, an interesting letter written in 1961 by the then state chief minister D Sanjivayya to Union home minister Lal Bahadur Shastri has surfaced.
In the scathing letter sourced from the National Archives of India, Sanjivayya accused the then Andhra Pradesh high court chief Justice P Chandra Reddy of being “communal-minded” and acting at the behest of fellow judges Justices P Satyanarayana Raju and Jagan Mohan Reddi.
Sanjivayya said “the high court had fallen on evil days” after Justice Chandra Reddy took over as the chief justice. “The sad degeneration in every aspect is beyond description,” Sanjivayya wrote, adding that “politics have crept into the high court where also groupism on communal and other lines has been predominant.”Sanjivayya alleged that in all appointments and transfers, Justice Chandra Reddy was guided by considerations of communalism and favouritism.
Citing an example, the then CM said “E Venkatesam, though he is average type of lawyer, has been recommended by the chief justice for appointment as high court judge” because he was “a junior under Mr P Satyanarayana Raju.” “On the whole, I hear sickening reports about these persons,” Sanjivayya said and requested Shastri, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the chief justice of India to do justice to the people of the state.
Sanjivayya said the “chief justice Mr Chandra Reddy openly encourages his castemen in the bar much to the heartburn of other members of the bar.”“How can there be real national integration if such high placed dignitaries behave in such unbecoming manner and if they are allowed to continue like that? The confidence of the public will be shaken if the judiciary favours one group or community,” the letter stated.
“It is not good for the institution or the state or even for himself if people lose faith on some account or other. I can assertively state that the confidence of public is badly shaken in his regime as Chief Justice,” the former CM wrote and sought Justice Chandra Reddy’s transfer. “If he is not transferred from the high court immediately, the reputation thereof will be damaged beyond repair. I therefore strongly press for his transfer at once in the interests of the state and its people and the reputation of the high court itself,” the letter stated.