Row over house sites given to AP HC judges

Telugu Desam chief N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday defended his government’s decision to allot house sites to 11 serving Andhra Pradesh High Court judges in the proposed Amaravati capital region.

Naidu was reacting to a startling revelation on social media that 13 judges, of whom two have retired and 11 are serving in the HC, were alloted house sites of 600 square yards each in April, 2019, a few weeks before he stepped down.

Though the source of the post giving details of the judges who got the allotment, that went viral on social media, was unknown, the TD chief attributed it to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. He took exception “to a person who is on conditional bail attacking the judiciary.”

The sites were alloted in Township 20 of Sector 155 of the Amaravati capital city on April 24 last year, according to the social media post.

The post questioned the allotment of house sites to judges, citing a Gujarat High Court decision to serve notices against 27 judges who took sites from the government of that state. Referring to the court staying the allotment of house sites to the poor in Amaravati, the post wondered how allotment of sites to the poor could be stalled when judges were given similar benefit.

Participating in a TD Parliamentary Party virtual meeting, Naidu said his government had decided to allot house sites to bureaucrats, government employees, judges and media personnel with an intention to accelerate growth in the capital region.

He took objection to the YSRC resorting to mudslinging against judges alone.