BJP thus fulfilled one of the major promises it had made during bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has overruled objections from Chandrababu Naidu and separated the Hyderabad High Court for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh from 1 January 2019, in fulfillment of the four-and-a-half year long demand from the K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR)-led TRS government. With this, the bifurcation of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh will be complete.
Right from the beginning, the Naidu government has been seeking time till it built a permanent High Court building at Amaravati, but the Telangana government and its lawyers opposed the stand, on the ground that the combined HC was dominated by judges from the Andhra region. For the last one year, the Centre, too, sided with the Telangana argument.
The Modi-led BJP government is keen on implementing the promises made to both Telangana and Andhra at the time of their bifurcation in 2014, by general elections in summer. The BJP wants to improve its performance in the Lok Sabha elections in both the states, though they were ruled by TRS and TDP. The division of the High Court is one of the major promises the BJP has fulfilled. As a result, the existing High Court in Hyderabad will become the Telangana High Court, while a new High Court will come up at Amaravati in Andhra from next Tuesday. In a fast paced development, the Centre has expedited matters and ensured that the President of India issued a Gazette notification on 26 December, creating separate HCs for Telangana and Andhra from 1 January.
Interestingly, the notification came hours after newly re-elected Telangana Chief Minister KCR called on PM Modi in Delhi on the same day. The separation of HC for both the states has been a major demand from the CM for the last four-and-a-half years and it was one of the 16 requests the CM submitted to the PM on Wednesday.
The sudden announcement from the Centre on shifting of Andhra HC to Amaravati from 1 January came as a shocker to the TDP government, which has been seeking time till March end for the division of the HC on the ground that there were no proper buildings and infrastructure for the new courts. In fact, AP CM Naidu was on the verge of writing to the Supreme Court on this.
However, the Centre has decided not to allow any more time to Andhra on this as the separation of HC was being postponed on one or the other reason for some time. The Centre was of the view that the demand of the Telangana government for creation of a separate HC was just and felt that it was not possible to wait to split the court till a permanent building was ready at Amaravati, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh.
When the issue came up for hearing before the Supreme Court six months ago, the Centre had agreed with the view of the Telangana government that an alternative building can be found within Hyderabad so that both the states can have separate HCs. Then, the AP government had told the SC that it would keep ready a temporary building at Amaravati by 15 December.
Based on that assurance, the Centre had hastened the process of division of HC and set 1 January as the appointed date for functioning of new HC for Andhra. The re-election of TRS in Telangana in the recent Assembly elections and the submission of a memorandum by the CM to the PM on the issue, too, are understood to have imparted a sense of urgency to the matter, sources said.
Justice C. Praveen Kumar will be the Chief Justice of Andhra High Court. There will be 13 other judges too. Justice T.B.N. Radhakrishna is the Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court, and there will be 11 other judges.
On the advice of the SC, Andhra has been allotted 539 judicial officers, including district and lower court judges and prosecutors, while Telangana has been assigned 362 judicial officers, including district and subordinate courts. Of the three lakh cases pending before the combined High Court, 60% will go to the Andhra High Court, while the rest will remain with the Telangana High Court.
Around 2,000 lawyers from Andhra went on a flash strike in the HC since Thursday protesting against the decision to shift AP HC to Amaravati from 1 January, on the ground that it would be difficult for them to move to the state. However, the HC’s acting CJ, Radhakrishnan made it clear to them that they would have to abide by the President’s orders. Naidu first opposed the decision of the Centre on shifting of AP HC to Amaravati from next week, but within no time changed his mind and said that his government would make arrangements for the commencement of the HC from Amaravati from 1 January. Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan will administer the oath of office to new Andhra CJ Praveen Kumar at Amaravati on Tuesday. For the first four days, the Andhra HC will operate from the CM’s Camp Office at Amaravati and the court will have Sankranti vacation for two weeks till 20 January. Then the HC will be shifted to the temporary building constructed at the new capital. A High Court complex with 14 halls, a library, and a canteen will be ready there by 20 January.