Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court, which became the High Court of Andhra Pradesh after the formation of the state in 1956, will serve only the Telangana region from New Year’s Day
Following the President’s notification, the Andhra Pradesh High Court will start functioning in the Andhra region after 62 years. The court will be located in the Guntur region. Till the formation of united AP state in 1956, the Andhra High Court was situated in Guntur.
Following the notification for the bifurcation of separate High Courts, the High Court premises on Monday became a venue for the legal fraternity to bid farewell. A lot of cheer and sadness could be seen among the advocates and the judges who had been working in the same court for decades together.
Justice A.V. Sesha Sai, who has been allotted to the AP High Court, broke down when his fellow judges and advocates bid him farewell. The others who received a rousing send-off also felt emotional and shared warm hugs. The judges allocated to AP along with their families left for Vijayawada in separate cars.
Several advocates who were leaving for AP were in tears when their fellow advocates from Telangana state waved them goodbye. The Telangana advocates were also emotional.
Several judicial employees are still confused as some of them have been sent to Andhra Pradesh
on a temporary basis to run the Andhra Pradesh High Court during the initial days of its establishment at Vijayawada.
The Hyderabad High Court arranged transportation for the judicial employees to leave for AP on Monday.
Earlier, mild tension prevailed in the High Court premises during noon, when some employees refused to leave the state on a temporary basis, assuming that they would be allotted to AP, despite being from Telangana state.
A few members went to the Chief Justice’s chamber and expressed their unhappiness and gave a representation requesting to allocate the employees on nativity basis.
The Judges Committee for the allocation of the employees said that the allocation would be on the basis of seniority and other guidelines. More than 5,000 case files belonging to AP jurisdiction were transported safely to Vijayawada in separate vehicles as a first phase. Over two lakh more case files were yet to be forwarded to the AP High Court.
Advocates from the Rayalaseema region staged a protest outside the court premises, calling December 31 a 'black day', alleging that the AP state government had not constituted the High Court in the Rayalaseema region.
Along with the separate High Courts, the Bar Councils for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state will start functioning separately. Secretary of the Bar Council said the money from the advocates’ welfare fund stamps would be deposited in separate bank accounts from January 1.
HC rejects petition seeking stay on High Court division
The Hyderabad High Court on Monday dismissed a petition challenging the notifications for constituting a separate High Court for Andhra Pradesh from January 1, 2019.
A division bench comprising Justice V. Ramasubramanian and P. Keshava Rao was hearing the petition filed by advocate P.V. Krishnaiah, urging the court to stay the implementation of the Union government's notifications related to the constitution of the separate High Court.
The bench said that, other than some inconveniences in the way to run AP High Court in the short time, there were no other reasons to stay the notifications. It cited the AP government’s stand before the Supreme Court on the availability of Court building at Nelapadu in Andhra Pradesh.
The Andhra Pradesh government has filed a sworn affidavit before the Apex Court, mentioning that the court building would have available on December 15,2018, it said.
Mr P.V. Krishnaiah, appearing in person, said the Union government has issued a notification to constitute separate High Court in a hasty manner and in without applying mind. He alleged that with the malice on the state, the Union government did not allow the state the period to complete the court building.
He said notifications were issued without consulting the AP government and waiting for the Union cabinet resolution.
