It looks like Telugu Desam Party leaders are playing an intelligent game to see that the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government does not execute its three capitals plan at least in the near future.
In the name of the farmers of Amaravati who have been agitating against the shifting of executive capital to Visakhapatnam, the TDP leaders have been engaging top and the most expensive legal luminaries of the country, that too, who are close relatives of the present judges of Supreme Court.
It is a common practice that a Supreme Court judge does not take up the hearing on a petition by a particular party, if it is found that his close relatives or kin are arguing the case on behalf of the opposite party. The judge recuses himself from hearing and transfers the case to another bench.
So, when the Jagan government filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court challenging the status quo order issued by the Andhra Pradesh high court on shifting of executive capital to Visakhapatnam and judicial capital to Kurnool from Amaravati.
The HC issued status quo order twice and will continue till August 27. The SLP came up before the division bench of the SC headed by chief justice S A Bobde.
During the course of hearing, one of the counsels arguing for Amaravati farmers brought to the notice of the chief justice that his daughter Rukmini Bobde was arguing on behalf of one of the farmers in the same case in the state high court.
As a result, Justice Bobde recused himself from the case stating that he cannot take up the case when his own daughter is arguing the case. So, he transferred the case to the bench of Justice Rohington Fali Nariman after consulting the registrar.
The case came up for fresh hearing in the Supreme Court on Wednesday before Justice Nariman bench. But again, it was revealed that Justice Nariman’s father Fali S Nariman was also engaged by another farmer to argue the case in Amaravati high court.
As a result, Justice Nariman, too, recused himself from the case and announced that a different bench will take up the case. He deferred the case for another three days.
For the sake of record, the 91-year old Fali S Nariman, a Padma Vibhushan awardee and former president of Supreme Court Bar Association, is one of the most expensive lawyers in the country. He charges Rs 15-20 lakh per appearance in the court.
So, one can imagine how much money the so-called poor farmers of Amaravati are spending to defend their real estate properties!
