The consent was sought from Advocate General (AG) K.K. Venugopal on a criminal petition files by Adv. Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay against Andhra Pradesh CM Jaganmohan Reddy for writing a letter addressed to CJI S.A. Bobde describing serious allegations against a Justice N.V. Ramana (sitting Judge of supreme Court) and his principal advisor Ajay Kellam who made the letter public at a press conference.
The consent was denied by the AG and he condemned the act as “prima facie contumacious”. He said that according to him the timing of the letter as well as making it public at a press conference could certainly be suspect in background of an order passed by Justice Ramana on September 9th, 2020 about directing to take up pending prosecutions of elected representatives and disposed them off as Adv. Ashwini jimself pointed out that 31 cases are pending against the CM. So, the entire case of contempt arise from a letter dated October 10th, 2020 by CM to CJI and subsequent press conference.
AG added that “The Chief Justice is therefore seized of the matter. Hence, it would not be appropriate for me to deal with the matter. For these reasons, I decline consent to initiate proceedings for criminal contempt of the Supreme Court of India.”
