In protest against the provisional allocation of judicial personnel between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, a week-long abstention from courts is being carried out by the various bar associations of Telangana from June 6 to June 13.
The week-long protest comes after an emergency meeting held on June 5, by the Bar Association of High Court and all districts of Telangana State, the Telangana Advocates JAC, the Telangana Judges Association, the Telangana State Judicial Employees Association, and the Telangana Law Officers Association.
Driving the current protest is the objection that the provisional allotment of judicial personnel is not being carried out according to the principle of nativity. “It is specifically mentioned in the 2014 Andhra Pradesh Re-Organization Act that after the separation of the state, people who belong to AP should only be appointed in Andhra Pradesh,” said K Govardhan Reddy, convener of the Advocates JAC.
He explained that this decision comes in the wake of a long period of inaction on the subject of bifurcating the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
Speaking to The News Minute, Govardhan Reddy said, “According to Article 214, it is unconstitutional to have one High Court for two different states.”
He said that although demands for two separate High Courts have been raised since the bifurcation of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, concrete action has been much delayed.
“We have been demanding a separate High Court from the past two years, as after the formation of Telangana state there is no separate High Court for the new state. The central government had promised us many times that a separate High Court for Telangana would be created. But we recently celebrated the second birthday of Telangana, and till now there has been no separate High Court,” explained Govardhan Reddy.
He added that Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda had visited Hyderabad during the 2014-15 MLC elections, and had also given his personal assurance at the time that a separate High Court would be setup within three months, but again the promise was not fulfilled.
Disappointed with the inaction of the central government, Telangana advocates had also approached the Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh, as well as the Governor of both the states 15 days ago and made a representation regarding the issue he added.
“We have only two demands, and we have called for a ‘Chalo High Court’ programme on June 13, which we announced after a joint meeting at the Hyderabad Civil Court on Sunday. If our demands are not fulfilled by the end of this month, we are planning a ‘Chalo Delhi’ in the month of July,” he added.
It was also resolved in the emergency meeting that, as a mark of protest, all judicial employees will wear black badges during lunch hours. Further, a letter would be presented to the High Court, seeking permission for all judicial employees to apply for mass casual leave from June 13.