Andhra Pradesh HC issues contempt notices to three media houses for ‘derogatory’ posts against judges

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday named three local media channels – TV5, Mahaa News and Myra Media – among those accused of making derogatory remarks against two judges who dismissed a quash petition filed by TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu in the alleged skill development scam case.

Many of these posts had alleged that the judges had “ulterior motives in their rulings,” which the high court said was “unacceptable”.

The high court had earlier sent contempt notices to 26 individuals for posting derogatory remarks against its judges and the Anti-Corruption Bureau court on social media. It had also sent notices to Google India, X and Facebook India to remove these posts.

According to The New Indian Express, the division bench of U Durga Prasad Rao and M Kiranmayee again directed Google to remove the objectionable posts, and recorded the submissions of X and Facebook on the removal of similar posts.

Naidu was arrested by the state CID on September 9 in connection with an alleged multi-crore AP State Skill Development Corporation scam that took place during his tenure as the chief minister between 2014 and 2019. The TDP chief was released on regular bail in November last year. 

The AP government subsequently moved the Supreme Court against the regular bail. The petition will be heard by the top court on February 26. Meanwhile, the contempt court case will be heard on March 26.

After Naidu’s arrest, Newslaundry reported on how multiple central and state-run skill training initiatives are plagued with issues – Andhra Pradesh being only the tip of the iceberg. Read about it here.

This report was published with AI assistance.