All GOs were in order, Ministers tell SC

New Delhi, Dec 4, 2012: In a major development in YSR Congress chief Sri Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s properties case, five ministers and five IAS officers defended themselves in their individual affidavits submitted to the Supreme Court on Monday in the 26 GOs case saying the GOs were totally in order and issued for industrial development in the state.

The issue that Supreme Court will now examine is how Sri Jagan Mohan Reddy could be found fault if there were no illegalities in the 26 GOs issued by Dr. YSR Government as submitted by the Ministers and IAS officials. The apex court will hear the case on Dec 10.  

Saying that the Cabinet as a whole held responsibility for the GOs, Ministers Geeta Reddy, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Dharmana Prasada Rao, Kanna Lakshminarayana and Sabitha Indra Reddy and former minister Mopidevi Venkataramana, IAS officials Samuel, Manmohan Singh, Adityanath Das, SV Prasad and Syambau submitted their affidavits to the apex court here on Monday, the last day of the deadline.

The representatives of Ministers and IAS officials rushed to the apex court at the eleventh hour before the close of the deadline. “The GOs, issued in the interest of the state were completely in order and no rules were violated and we could not be held responsible individually as the GOs were the result of the joint decisions of the Cabinet,” they said in their separate affidavits.

The Ministers and IAS officers said all the GOs were issued subject to the AP Government Business Rules and Secretariat Instructions and after thorough discussions in the Council of Ministers. “We didn’t resort to any criminalities in issuing the GOs which were aimed at industrial progress of the AP state,” they said.

The Ministers and IAS officers were asked to submit their affidavits in March last on filing of a PIL by a Nellore based lawyer but they have dragged on the case till the deadline given by the apex court’s registrar.

While IAS officers CVSK Sarma and Rathna Prabha had filed their affidavits long ago, suspended IAS officer Sri Lakshmi was given a deadline of Dec 13 for submission of her affidavit on health grounds.