Taking high moral ground in public often works with the impact of a ‘doubled edged sword’: It can cut both ways and land even those preaching scruples in an awkward situation. Former Chief Justice of India Justice (retired) Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana seems to have just unfolded one such scenario, thereby attracting instant criticism of not practising what he is preaching.

The retired CJI, the other day, batted strongly for the rights of the Amaravati farmers who had voluntarily given away their land for the development of the Andhra Pradesh capital, as part of Chandrababu Naidu’s designs. But, instead of taking a holistic approach on the entire Amaravati mess, including the dime a dozen alleged scandals concealed in it, Ramana made some comments that sounded partisan in nature.

In the process, he unwittingly raked up a three-year-old controversy involving his own daughters who were accused of being complicit in the Amaravati land scam conspiracy. With the retired justice’s latest comments, the entire gamut of the Amaravati land scandals has once again come back under sharp focus. Even as the episode sparked intense debate on social media platforms, Justice (retd) Ramana is facing flak for ‘exposing his hypocrisy’ in the matter.

The handful of Amaravati farmers are opposed to the idea of the YS Jaganmohan Reddy government to decentralise administration through the creation of three capitals for the state. They have been agitating for over a year now, insisting that Amaravati be retained as the state’s only capital.

Despite their admirable relentlessness, the group of farmers is constantly accused of being tacitly backed by Chandrababu Naidu and his TDP henchmen, who bought swathes of Amaravati lands, directly or indirectly, from the farmers. The common refrain heard in the public domain is that, the TDP chief’s model of real estate-based corruption, camouflaged with the capital plan, has been jeopardised with YS Jagan’s counter-stroke.

Before digging deep into the Amaravati muddle and the alleged involvement of the former CJI’s family in it, let’s take a look at what he said, as reported in a section of the media, after meeting the group of agitating farmers from Amaravati.

Addressing the farmers who submitted a memorandum to him, NV Ramana lamented that these farmers were constrained to stand in a court like criminals even after giving away their lands. “The farmers had sacrificed their lands for the construction of the state capital in Amaravati. I was among those who participated in the foundation-laying ceremony for the capital. The relationship between the land and the farmer is akin to that of a mother and son. A farmer losing out on his land is no ordinary matter. Even after parting with their lands, these farmers are forced to stand in courts like criminals. The governments should wake up at least now and do justice to them,” NV Ramana was quoted as saying in a section of the vernacular media.

Ramana’s two daughters named in AP ACB FIR on alleged Amaravati land conspiracy

Way back in November 2020, the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Andhra Pradesh caused ripples when it named the two daughters of Justice NV Ramana in its First Information Report (FIR) on an alleged scam centring around ‘questionable land deals’ within the Amaravati capital region. The case, registered under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, was based on a complaint lodged by an advocate. In the FIR, Nuthalapati Sritanuja and Nuthalapati Sribhuvana – NV Ramana’s daughters – were named as accused number 10 and 11. They were accused of ‘criminally conspiring with one Dammalapati Srinivas, a former advocate general of the Chandrababu Naidu regime, to illegally buy premium land in Amaravati, months before the TDP government announced its plans to make it a greenfield capital city.

The crux of the accusations is that multiple pieces of land were purchased in various mandals of Vijayawada and Guntur between August 13, 2014 and December 9, 2014 by Srinivas and his associates with “prior knowledge that these lands would become part of either the core capital region or the capital region development authority.”

Interestingly, the FIR was registered a few weeks before NV Ramana was to succeed Justice SA Bobde as the Chief Justice of India. What added more spice to this intriguing episode was a gag order issued by the Andhra Pradesh High Court within hours of the registration of the FIR. The High Court not only stayed the investigation but also directed the ACB not to take any coercive action against those named in the FIR besides restraining the media from reporting on this particular case. It is a different matter that the so-called gag order was stayed by the Supreme Court subsequently.

Now, as the retired CJI, and after more than three years, NV Ramana suddenly crying hoarse on the ‘injustice meted out to the Amaravati farmers’, is being seen as a classic case of ‘crocodile tears’. Questions are being raised on whether the legal luminary has any right to speak in support of these farmers, especially when his two daughters were allegedly involved in a ‘questionable land deal’ in the same capital region. There is this argument that the ‘highly venerable family’ had more to conceal than reveal with regard to the land transaction in question and the same became evident from the gag order, hurriedly issued by the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

Netizens are also wondering what the retired justice meant when he said that ‘the governments should at least wake up now and do justice to the Amaravati farmers’. “Does it mean that the governments at the Centre and State dig into the three-year-old case involving his daughters, confiscate the land purchased by them and restore justice to the farmer who originally owned that piece of land,” they are questioning.