Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday reserved its orders on petitions challenging the ongoing recruitment of district judges and junior civil judges. A division bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt was hearing a batch of petitions against the recruitment.
TS advocate-general K. Ramakrishna Reddy, in his concluding arguments, told the court that a registrar of the HC had threatened TS Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma citing a Supreme Court order and saying that a contempt case would be slapped on him if he does not issue a recruitment notification for the selection of junior civil judges immediately. He said that the ‘threatening’ ultimatum was given to the CS in February 2015 by Registrar (Recruitment).
The A-G said: “The CS was very much worried about the contempt ever since the Registrar gave him an ultimatum. Though I assured him that the High Court on administration side does not issue contempt notices, the CS was not pacified”. The CS also approached an Additional Solicitor General of India who was known to him and sought clarification from him. The ASG too told him that there cannot be any contempt in such matters, the A-G added.
The AG contended that once the successor state came into existence after division of AP and framed its own judicial service rules, the AP Judicial Service Rules will no longer applicable to them. When the bench asked why TS did not consult the High Court while preparing its own judicial rules, he replied that they had only adapted the old rules by merely replacing relevant names and they had not infringed on the HC’s powers nor modified the existing powers.
Senior counsel Satyam Reddy and one of the petitioners as a party in person said the recruitment, in accordance with AP Rules after the Appointed Day, was unconstitutional. The bench announced that the hearing in the case has concluded and asked Mr Ramakrishna Reddy to submit his written arguments by March 11.
