Hyderabad: Maintaining that neither Article 241 nor 231 of the Constitution permits an High Court outside the territory of a state, E. Manohar, former advocate-general and amicus curiae on Wednesday informed the Hyderabad High Court that establishing a separate High Court of AP in Hyderabad is illegal.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar was hearing arguments on a PIL by T. Dhangopal Rao, a practising advocate of the HC as a party-in-person seeking to direct both the governments to give concurrence for constitution of a separate High Court for both the states.
E. Manohar said that the letter of the Union law minister to the Chief Justice of Hyderabad High Court to initiate steps to set up the HC at Hyderabad was contrary to Section 30 and 32 of the AP Reorganisation Act.
He said the Act never contemplates separate HC for Telangana and once a new HC for AP was constituted, the existing HC shall become the High Court for Telangana.
When the Chief Justice pointed out that as Hyderabad is a common capital for both the states, can it not be treated as a notional territory of AP, the amicus curiae replied in the negative and said Article 214 and 231 bars having a High Court outside territory of a state. Punjab and Haryana High Court is located in Chandigarh which is Union Territory.
P. Venugopal, advocate- general of AP said that the Chief Minister of AP has already informed the Chief Justice that people of AP are anxiously looking forward to formation of a new capital and since constitution of a High Court is an important entity, the state administration is keen on constituting the same in the capital region.
Verdict on APSCHE funds reserved
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar of the Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday reserved its orders on petitions by the AP State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) and the Telangana government with regard to dispute between both the states for utilisation of funds of the Council.
The APSCHE had challenged the action of the State Bank of Hyderabad in freezing its account in Shanti Nagar branch of the city allegedly at the behest of Telangana government.
The Telangana State moved the plea seeking to restrain the AP government and APSCHE from operating or withdrawing any money from the bank accounts with respect to the institutions specified in the Tenth Schedule of the AP Reorganisation Act.
Telangana advocate-general K. Ramakrishna Reddy submitted that Section 100 and 103 of the AP Reorganisation Act empowers the Telangana State to operate the funds of the Council without even adapting the institution.
P. Venugopal, advocate general of Andhra Pradesh said that the Reorganis-ation Act facilitates newly formed state for adapting the existing laws for the new state not the institution which are mentioned in 10th schedule of the Act. He contended that freezing of cannot be justified by filing a counter petition.
