VIJAYAWADA: Justice C Manavendranath Roy of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday recused himself from hearing the petitions filed with respect to the conduct of election to the chairperson and vice-chairpersons of the Kondapalli municipality after the counsel of one of the petitioners continued to interrupt him in spite of repeated pleas by the judge. Justice Roy was hearing separate petitions related to the conduct of election of chairperson and vice-chairpersons of the municipality.
While one petition was filed by the elected councillors of the TDP, another was filed by Vijayawada MP Kesineni Srinivas (Nani) seeking court’s intervention to allow him cast his vote during the election as an ex-officio member. Later, the YSRC councillors filed an implead petition. During an earlier hearing, the government questioned the maintainability of the petition of TDP councillors.
When the petitions came up for hearing on Wednesday, additional advocate general Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy sought time to examine the papers submitted by senior counsel N Aswini Kumar, who appeared on behalf of the TDP councillors. Justice Manavendranath Roy agreed to the plea of the Additional AG and said the matter would be posted for hearing on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Justice Manavendranath Roy sought to know from Ashwini Kumar as to how the petition is maintainable and the latter started to explain his stand. Counsel of the YSRC councillors Chaparla Sitaram tried to intervene and make his arguments but Justice Manavendranath Roy politely asked him not to do so. However, Sitaram tried to push forward his argument. This time, Justice Manavendranath Roy told Sitaram that he can make his argument when his time comes and said any orders would be given only after hearing all the sides.
Sitaram did not budge and continued to go ahead with his arguments to which Justice Manavendranath Roy objected. Justice Roy said such behaviour is not permitted in his court and asked Sitaram not to waste the time of the court. Sitaram, however, did not relent following which Justice Manavendranath Roy stepped down from the bench and went away.
When the court assembled after lunch, Justice Manavendranath Roy said he would not hear the case any more and said the petitions would be heard by another bench. Senior counsel Ashwini Kumar sought Justice Manavendranath Roy to record the reasons for transferring the case to another bench. Though Justice Roy initially said there is no such need, he later did so. Justice Roy said he took the decision as he was interrupted repeatedly during the hearing.