VIJAYAWADA: Justice Venkata Jyothirmai Pratapa of the Andhra Pradesh High Court has recused herself from hearing the bail and interim bail petitions of former Chief Minister and TDP national president N Chandrababu Naidu in the AP State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) case.
The petitions came up for hearing before the court vacation bench on Friday. Justice Venkata Jyothirmai said one of the advocates of the petitioner is the husband of a judicial officer and she does not want to hear the cases of that particular advocate. She said her conscience is not allowing her to hear the petitions. She asked the petitioner’s counsel to place before the Chief Justice the petitions detailing about the health condition of Naidu and asked the High Court Registry to see that the petitions are heard on October 30.
At this juncture, Naidu’s counsels Sidharth Luthra and Dammalapati Srinivas sought directions to the Registry to take steps for urgent hearing of the petitions in view of Naidu’s health condition. The counsels informed that they would seek the High Court Registry for urgent hearing of the petitions and wanted the order to be altered without the mention of the date. If October 30 is mentioned in the order, they can’t seek urgent hearing of petitions before the Registry, they counsels said.
Justice Venkata Jyothirmai said the orders issued by her would not be a hindrance for them to post the petition to an appropriate bench as per the rules.It may be recalled that the counsels of Naidu filed the petitions before Dasara vacation. When the court wanted to post the petitions for hearing after the vacation, they pleaded the court to post the hearing of the bail and interim bail petitions before the vacation bench.