Lawyers from the Rayalaseema High Court Sadhana Samithi on Tuesday met acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan of the Hyderabad High Court and urged him to consider setting up the Andhra Pradesh HC in the Rayalaseema region.
Stating that injustice has been done to the region, the lawyers submitted their representation.
According to lawyers present in the meeting, the CJ promised to look into the matter and discuss it with other judges.
The Rayalaseema region comprises four districts – Kurnool, Kadapa, Anantapur and Chittoor. The region has several drought-prone areas and witnesses farmer suicides annually.
Earlier this week, the Presidents and Secretaries of Bar Associations of the Rayalaseema region met in Kadapa and passed a resolution to constitute the ‘Rayalaseema High Court Sadhana Samithi’.
It was decided that the President of the Kadapa Bar Association will be convener of the committee while the Presidents of the Bar Associations of the other three districts would be the co-convenors.
All the Presidents and Secretaries would also be members of the Executive Council of the Committee, it was decided.
The main objective of the committee is to “undertake various forms of agitation... to achieve the aspirations of the Rayalaseema people” and establish a high court in the region.
The members also plan to meet Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and Leader of Opposition YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to submit their representations.
As a mark of protest, members of the committee decided to abstain working in all courts in the region between January 29 and February 2.
The future course of action would be decided when the committee meets again on February 3.
After the state’s bifurcation in 2014 for the creation of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh has been building its upcoming capital Amaravati on the banks of the Krishna River, with its latest target being the location of the High Court building.
According to reports, Chief Minister Naidu has asked for building suggestions by the end of January, so that modifications to the building can be made by April and the court itself can begin functioning by June this year.
However, while Naidu’s government has been busy identifying buildings in Vijayawada and in the capital area, others have strongly opposed this move.
When Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated in 2014, the locals in Rayalaseema saw this as a chance to develop their region. However, CM Naidu’s focus on the Krishna and Godavari delta regions has irked many.
Many are appealing to Naidu to not repeat his ‘mistake’ of developing a single region between Vijayawada and Guntur while ignoring the rest of the state.