Close to five years after bifurcation, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana may finally have separate high courts which will start functioning from April 7, the date of Ugadi or the Telugu New Year. This announcement came after a delegation of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MPs met Union Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad and submitted a representation.
The delegation was led by Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter and Nzamabad MP K Kavitha. According to reports, President Ram Nath Kovind has ratified the 'appointment day'.
“Most likely, April 7 is going to be the appointed date for the bifurcation of the high court. The new high court at Amaravati will start functioning from the same date, which coincides with Ugadi. Bifurcation of high court has been one of the 52 issues pending with the Centre for the last four years. It was only after the intervention of the Supreme Court that the process got expedited,” a TRS leader told HT.
In November this year, the Supreme Court gave the green signal to the Andhra Pradesh government to issue a notification for the bifurcation of the existing High Court in Hyderabad, so that a separate HC for the state can be hosted in Amaravati.
"We expect such a notification to be issued by January 1, 2019, so that the two High Courts start functioning separately and High Court of Andhra Pradesh also starts functioning in the new building at the earliest,” the Supreme Court bench had earlier said.
The new Andhra HC is expected to function from a temporary structure in the state's capital till a permanent building is set up at the 'Justice City' being planned in Amaravati.
Earlier this year, the Centre had challenged a judgement of the Hyderabad HC in the Supreme Court, which had said that the permanent HC for Andhra must be constructed within the state only. The Centre had claimed that as Hyderabad was the common capital of both states for 10 years and the delay in bifurcation was causing several problems, a temporary HC could be established in the city as there was enough infrastructure.
The Andhra government in its response said that the temporary accommodation could also be arranged in its own upcoming capital. The bifurcation will take place according to guidelines laid down in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.