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Tuesday, Oct 17, 2006
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Cabinet to petition President Kalam

Special Correspondent

Soli Sorabjee's remarks about State Government draw flak

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Government is contemplating a move to submit a petition to the President and the Chief Justice against former Attorney General Soli J. Sorabjee, for his remarks about the Government after the Supreme Court quashed the remission of sentence granted to Gouru Venkata Reddy by the Governor.

Mr. Sorabjee observed last weekend that the Government was at fault in the case because the Governor would only act on the advice of the Council of Ministers on such matters. He was here to deliver the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Lecture when reporters sought his views on the Opposition's demand for the resignations of Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy and Union Minister for Power S. K. Shinde, who was Governor then.

Copy of judgment

A meeting of the State Cabinet here on Monday, after going through the copy of the Supreme Court's judgment, noted that nowhere did the Supreme Court indict the Chief Minister, the Cabinet or the Government.

The Ministers resolved to stand by the Chief Minister and took exception to the observations since Mr. Sorabjee was appointed as an amicus curie to assist the Supreme Court on the issue of clemency.

The issue figured in the Cabinet meeting when Minister for Law and Commercial Taxes K. Ramakrishna, questioning the propriety of the former Attorney General passing "disparaging comments against the Cabinet without even knowing that the petition seeking remission was not referred to the Cabinet".

The Cabinet reportedly decided to take the issue to the Constitutional authorities in New Delhi as it felt the observation, made in bad taste, had damaged the Government's reputation.

Moreover, the court had also not denied Venkata Reddy an opportunity to seek remission afresh.

Closed issue

Later, addressing a press conference at the Congress Legislature Party office, Ministers N. Raghuveera Reddy, Ponnala Lakshmaiah and M. Mareppa, along with several party MLAs, said they felt that a man of Mr. Sorabjee's stature should have avoided commenting on a closed issue.

They asked whether Mr. Sorabjee was entitled to air his opinion thus after being the amicus curie in the case. His observations had only provided political ammunition to the Telugu Desam Party, the Congress leaders said.

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