In scoring political brownie points, Jagan faces ignominy in court battles

If there’s one institution that the YSRCP ruling would not want to look back on, it’s the judiciary. The state government added several new pages of ignominy to its name in the last two months. That the Jagan’s administration is embroiled in legal slugfest to score political brownie points is known, but what it takes for the Chief Minister to win a victory in court battles has reached ridiculous dimensions.

Between March-April alone, the government had lost its face at least in six to seven different cases in the High Court and Supreme Court. The Jagan’s dispensation was being challenged in courts on almost every important policy decision. Several petitions were filed challenging the state government’s controversial decisions in the recent past, and the Jagan’s dispensation had to swallow a bitter pill in the court battles by losing all of them. With over 50 cases in last 11 months, the TDP opposition stated that the government set a record of sorts in court battles.

However, the first big loss of face in the month March was when Jagan’s government lost its case in the Supreme Court. The government wanted to go ahead with the elections to civic bodies after consistently downplaying the severity of the corona virus pandemic with Jagan calling it “common fever, cold” which can be treated with Paracetamol and bleaching powder. But the SEC deferred the polls. The State government lost the case in Supreme Court which upheld the SEC decision. After a rap from the High Court on the compulsory English medium instruction in government schools, Jagan’s Education Minister stated the court verdict should not be seen either as a victory or defeat and that the decision will be challenged in the Supreme Court. The chronicle of court cases can tell you, the chief minister has long made a habit of twisting the arm of individuals and institutions but the problem is that such attempts are rarely successful and the government would be most unwise to try to adopt them as a method of governing. Jagan and his team should by now realise that arm-twisting is of limited utility. It may work to get support on a certain legislative maneuver, but it’s rarely successful on legal and ideological standpoint. The Chief Minister has had scores of his initiatives shot down by the courts. The drumbeat of defeats grew hard to ignore. Telugu 360.com chronicled the key court battles the government lost in courts.

April 16, 2020: High Court dismissed the state government’s plea to give three months time to remove the blue, green and white colours associated with the ruling YSRCP, from the walls of panchayat offices and other government buildings. The manner in which entire the issue is being dealt with by the state government compels the court to think and observe that the state government was not removing the YSRCP colours from the walls of government buildings with an eye on the civic body elections

April 15, 2020: The High Court struck down GO Numbers 81 and 85 issued by the State government making English medium mandatory in all government schools from Classes 1 to VI terming it unconstitutional and violative of several Acts, including the Right to Education Act

March 22, 2020: The High Court stayed a GO on the distribution of around 1,250 acres of land to provide house sites to 54,307 beneficiaries as it violated CRDA rules.

March 18, 2020: The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Andhra Pradesh State Election Commission (SEC) to postpone the local body elections. The SEC deferred the elections citing the threat of corona virus, but the state government had challenged SEC decision in the SC.

March 12, 2020: The High Court ordered a CBI investigation into the death of former Lok Sabha member Y S Vivekananda Reddy, brother of former Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and an uncle of Jagan Mohan Reddy. The order comes nearly a year after he was found dead under suspicious circumstances

March 9, 2020: Ahead of civic body polls, the Andhra Pradesh High Court directed the Jagan government to remove YSRCP party colours on the Panchayat and government buildings

December 15, 2019: The High Court ruled that the state government cannot make changes to an agreement between a distribution company and a developer after the private power producers moved the court seeking scrapping of the state government’s GO 63. Through the GO, the YSRCP ruling reviewed all PPAs signed by Chandrababu Naidu as chief minister of the previous TDP dispensation. Naidu had signed PPAs with wind and solar power generators. Even the Union Power Ministry faulted the attitude of the YSRCP dispensation for cancelling PPAs entered into with solar and wind energy producers by the TDP regime