The Andhra Pradesh government has taken serious exception to the recent statements of well-known constitutional expert and former attorney general of India Soli J Sorabjee and decided to complain to President Dr A P J Abdul
Kalam and the Supreme Court.
Sorabjee's statements came up for discussion at the state Cabinet meeting that lasted two hours on Monday.
The Cabinet discussed the issue at length and unanimously decided to complain against Sorabjee to the President and the Supreme Court after consulting legal experts and State Advocate General C V Mohan Reddy.
It may be recalled that Sorabjee had faulted the state government for passing a 'wrong' order that led to then governor Sushil Kumar Shinde granting clemency to Gouru Venkat Reddy, who was convicted in a murder case.
The Supreme Court last week quashed the clemency granted to Venkat Reddy on an appeal filed by a close relative of the slain person.
Sorabjee, who was in Hyderabad to deliver the 21st Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Lecture on Saturday, had told reporters that the state Cabinet would have to own up responsibility for the episode and the "office of governor doesn't come into the picture at all."
The governor would act on the advice given by the Cabinet and it was for the Cabinet to decide whether the advice was based on "relevant" or "irrelevant" issues, he had observed.
The Cabinet felt that Sorabjee should not have made the comments on this issue as he was the Amicus Curie in the Venkat Reddy case.
The former attorney general had made the comments in the presence of Telugu Desam Party leader and former CBI director K Vijayarama Rao.
His tone and tenor was that of an opposition leader and he sought to lend support to the contentions of the main opposition party in the state.
Sources said that the issue of clemency for Venkat Reddy had never come up for discussion in the Cabinet meetings before and hence, the Cabinet had not made any recommendation to the governor in this regard.
It was the decision of Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy. He exercised his discretion in the capacity of the chief minister. But Sorabjee chose to fault the state Cabinet without knowing the facts of the issue.
The Supreme Court, in its judgement, never found fault either with the state government or the chief minister nor passed any strictures against them, but only pointed out lapses in the procedures adopted for granting clemency to the convict.
This does not mean that the Cabinet be blamed. The chief minister, too, had not gone out of the way but what he did was within the constitutional provisions and the guidelines and norms laid down by the Supreme Court.
Monday's Cabinet meeting recalled Sorabjee's efforts to protect TDP leader and former minister Dr Kodela Sivaprasada Rao in a bomb blast case at his residence in Narasaraopet in 1999 in which four persons were killed.
The Cabinet also pointed out that the previous TDP government had withdrawn 1,500 cases relating to murder, rape, cheating, dacoity and other serious offences and released 2,300 persons, including Venkat Reddy on parole.
However, Venkat Reddy was re-arrested after TDP leaders mounted pressure on the government.