The YSR Congress government in Andhra Pradesh faces severe remarks and repeated punishments from the high court since its beginning. Chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy accused the judiciary of biased approach. He had even written a letter to the then Supreme Court chief justice against some judges and named some.
The courts have quashed several of the Government Orders and issued stays on several decisions during the last three years. The government was found to be at fault or guilty for various actions and decisions. It was found that some of its arguments in the court or even filing affidavits were not up to the mark.
The chief secretaries and the DGPs were called to the court halls and made to stand in the courts all through the day as punishment for different reasons. This happened several times in the last three years. Every chief secretary in the state in the last three years had to appear in the court for some reason or the other.
The latest is the court awarding punishment to 8 senior IAS officers. It was a shameful thing for any government to see its senior bureaucrats being punished in the court. Even as individuals, the officers feel let down, when the news makes headlines.
All this shows that Jagan Mohan Reddy is still weak in his legal department. The law department and the advocate general seem to have failed to defend the government in the court. The drafting of affidavits and GOs by the law department was found to be weak and the chief minister never bothered to rectify it. The arguments in the courts too were found to be weak and the chief minister never cared to improve it.
In all, it is clear that even after three years in office, the chief minister remains weak in his legal department. He must improve the performance of the personnel in the department before the court punishes the senior bureaucrats once again.
