It appears judges in Andhra Pradesh high court are not interested in hearing any petitions related to the murder of former minister Y S Vivekananda Reddy that happened five years ago.
A week ago, a high court bench comprising senior judges Justice A V Sesha Sai and Justice Vijay recused themselves from taking up the petition filed by Viveka’s daughter Dr N Sunitha and Telugu Desam Party leader B Tech Ravi challenging the gag order given by the Kadapa court, asking them not to talk about the murder case.
Now, yet another bench comprising Justice U Durga Prasad Rao and Justice J Sumathi also refused to hear the petition and said “Not Before Us,” though the high court registry transferred the case from Justice Sesha Sai bench to their bench.
Now, the issue was back to the court of chief justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur, who has to allot the case to some other bench. If this bench also doesn’t want to hear the case, the chief justice himself has to take up the case. As a result, the case is going to get delayed.
The Kadapa court recently barred opposition party leaders, including Ravi, Chandrababu Naidu, Pawan Kalyan, Lokesh, Purandeshwari, Sharmila and even Viveka’s daughter Suneetha, from talking about the murder case of YS Vivekananda Reddy during the election campaign.
The petitioners argued that the Kadapa court’s decision violates Article 19 (freedom of speech and expression).
It appears the judges are feeling the heat and pressure in handling the Viveka murder issue. The original case has already been shifted to Telangana high court as per the directions of the Supreme Court.
