ANDHRA Pradesh & Telengana Now Have Separate High Courts

THE 65 years old Hyderabad High Court functioning in Hyderabad has been split to create a separate High court for Andhra Pradesh. Four years after the bifurcation that led to the creation of Telangana, the High Court that served the two states was today split into two independent ones to serve each state. Governor ESL Narasimhan administered the oath of office to Acting Chief Justice C Praveen Kumar and 13 other judges at a function held in the twin cities Amravati and Vijayawada. Earlier in the day before flying to Vijayawada, the Governor administered the oath of office to Justice Thottathil Bhaskaran Nair Radhakrishnan as the first Chief justice of Telangana High Court at Hyderabad. Judges were also administered oath of offices at both Hyderabad and Amravati. With this, the total number of High Courts functioning in the country has risen to 25. Till now, the High Court at Hyderabad had been functioning as the common high court for both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Andhra Pradesh has got 16 judges that include Justices C Praveen Kumar, SV Bhatt, AV Sesha Sai, Dama Seshadri Naidu (presently working on transfer as judge, Kerala High Court), Justice M Seetharama Murti, U Durga Prasad Rao, T Sunil Chowdary, M Satyanarayana Murthy, G Shyam Prasad, J Uma Devi, N Balayogi, T Rajani, DVSS Somayajulu, K Vijaya Lakshmi and M Ganga Rao.The remaining judges who will work in Telangana High Court are: Justices PV Sanjay Kumar, MS Ramachandra Rao, Justice A Rajasheker Reddy, P Naveen Rao, Challa Kodandaram, B Siva Sankara Rao, Dr Shameem Akther, P Keshava Rao, Abhinand Kumar Shavili, T Amarnath Goud.President Ram Nath Kovind had last week issued orders for a separate High Court of Andhra Pradesh.Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu called it a “historic day”. “I am very happy legal administration is beginning in the state today. With the inauguration of the High Court, the state bifurcation process has come to an end, barring distribution of assets,” he said.As the temporary building to accommodate the High Court in the state capital here was not ready yet, the state government converted Chief Minister’s camp office in Vijayawada into ad-hoc court premises.The Supreme Court had on Monday refused to take up for immediate hearing a petition filed by Andhra Pradesh Lawyers’ Association for postponing the shifting of High Court to Amravati till the construction of High Court building was completed there. The Supreme Court will take up the petition for hearing on Wednesday.

Hailing the decision four years after  bifurcation  of united Andhra Pradesh, AP CM Naidu said Mr Naidu said it as a “historic day”. “I am very happy legal administration is beginning in the state today. With the inauguration of the high court, the state bifurcation process has come to an end, barring distribution of assets.”As the temporary building to accommodate the high court in the state capital was not ready yet, the state government converted the chief minister’s camp office in Vijayawada into ad-hoc court premises, which was inaugurated by Supreme Court judge Justice N V Ramana. Formation of a separate high court would also be convenient to litigants, he added. There were over 2.6-lakh cases pending currently in the Hyderabad High Court, of which about 60 per cent was from Andhra Pradesh, sources had said.The Hyderabad High Court premises witnessed emotional scenes on Monday on the eve of coming into being of the separate high court, with advocates going down the memory lane. About 1,600 employees were working at the Hyderabad High Court and they would be allocated in the ratio of 58:42 to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana respectively, according to an official.While the temporary building is expected to be ready by the end of January, the actual high court complex will be built in another three years.Advocates from Telangana were in a celebratory mood following the formation of the high court, a long-pending demand.”Advocates from Telangana are very happy as a long-pending dream of having a separate high court for Telangana has been realised. When two states are formed then separate high courts must be established,” C Damodar Reddy, president of the Telangana High Court Advocates Association told media(with inputs from The  Deccan Chronicle)