[BREAKING] Supreme Court grants relief to former Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice V Eswaraiah in relation to probe into his phone chat

The Supreme Court on Monday granted relief to former Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, V Eswaraiah in connection with an enquiry ordered by Andhra Pradesh (AP) High Court into the telephonic conversation between the former judge and a suspended District Munsif Magistrate (Justice V Eswaraiah v. Union of India)..The top court ruled that there was no occasion for the High Court to order an enquiry into the conversation involving the former judge considering the fact that the judge had already admitted to the conversation and also filed a corrected English transcript of the conversation. .The judgment was delivered by a Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy on a plea by Justice Eswaraiah challenging the AP High Court order calling for a probe by retired Supreme Court judge Justice RV Raveendran into a telephonic conversation Justice Eswaraiah had with the suspended District Munsif Magistrate..“Authenticity and genuineness of the transcript having been admitted to the extent as contained in Annexure P-16, we are of the view that the direction by the High Court calling for report from Justice RV Raveendran need not be allowed to continue. We order accordingly,” said the judgment..The High Court had ordered an inquiry into the conversation which allegedly disclosed some material about a plot against the Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court and a sitting judge of the Supreme Court.The order by the High Court was passed in an intervention application filed by a suspended District Munsif Magistrate in an unrelated public interest litigation petition seeking implementation of COVID-19 guidelines in the High Court..The Supreme Court held that the High Court should not have embarked on any other role other than the deciding on the maintainability aspect of the petition before it. ."We are of the view that the High Court ought not to have embarked on any other enquiry in the matter except to the maintainability of the PIL at the instance of the writ petitioner and the conversation dated 20.07.2020 filed before the High Court as well as the enquiry report sought was only with the above purpose," said the Supreme Court..The top court therefore ruled that it is for the High Court to proceed with the writ petition and decide the same, including the maintainability of the PIL, after hearing arguments on which point the orders were reserved..In his plea before the Supreme Court, Justice Eswaraiah had pointed out that the inquiry into the conversation was ordered by the High Court on the basis of the intervention application without even allowing the intervention and without notice to him.In his affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the former judge has stated that "the voice in the conversation appears to be mine" and "hence the part what I have purported to say is correct."The suspended District Munsiff Magistrate called me over Whatsapp on July 20, 2020, however I do not know from which phone number he called from. Whatsapp is end to end encrypted and thus recording of call is not possible. However the recording proves that an external device was used to record the conversation," stated the affidavit..Justice Eswaraiah also alleged that the audio clip was leaked to a news channel to tarnish his image and to defame him..He submitted that the telephonic conversation between him and the suspended District Munsiff Magistrate did indeed take place over a Whatsapp call.However, he also stated that it was possible that "audio conversation as in the pen-drive may not be the exact conversation which took place and it is possible that some parts of conversation were edited out."He also maintained that the conversation in question was a private one and that the High Court had passed the order without issuing notice to Justice Eswaraiah and without hearing his side..[Read Judgment]