Judicial Protests: Telangana smells AP-Centre joint conspiracy

 

Eleven judges of the Hyderabad High Court have been suspended on disciplinary grounds for taking part in street agitations, that number is expected to go up today.

 

Amidst the suspensions hangs an intriguing political question. Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, who is shifting the entire AP government machinery to the yet non-existent capital Amaravati virtually at gun point, has not uttered a word about shifting the High Court to his dream capital.

 

He has not once requested either Hyderabad High Court or the centre to bifurcate the High Court so that could be a High Court on AP soil.  While he is spending a whopping Rs 1000 crore on building a new secretariat expediently, there are no plans or promises of court complexes.

 

Lack of answers to these questions led to the present crisis in the judiciary in Hyderabad.

The courts are not functioning in the state. All judicial officers are going on mass casual leave from today for 15 days. The Telangana government is furious over the centre's delaying tactics on the matter.

At the heart of the dispute is the worry that even after the bifurcation, the courts of Telangana are stuffed with judicial officers from Andhra Pradesh.

 

Also Read: When Telangana judges turned street protesters

 

“Do we need another Telangana movement to get the High Court freed from the people of Andhra,” cried Nizambad MP Kavita, and the daughter of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

 

According to the protesting judges, and the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the judiciary in the erstwhile combined Andhra Pradesh was dominated by judges from Andhra origin. Out of the 24 judges in High Court, there are only three of Telangana origin.

 

In the lower courts too, Andhra judges hold sway, it is claimed.

 

"Even after bifurcation, Andhra wants to dominate Telangana through the judiciary," thunders TRS' Kavita.  The question her party and the protesting judges of Telangana are asking is: why are Andhra judges keen to stay on in Hyderabad and not go to their native state of Andhra and serve its people.

 

"If you have no space in accommodate judges in the High Court in Amaravati, the Telangana government is ready to provide land for a complex for AP High Court,” Kavita says.

 

Enraged by the second round of suspension of eleven judges by the High Court yesterday, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao dashed off a letter to the centre questioning the logic behind the division of judges by the High Court chief justice, which he alleges favoured Andhra Pradesh.  

 

He rejected the bifurcation of judicial officers by the High Court and clarified that the division should be taken up only after the bifurcation High Court.  “In the tentative division of judges by High Court, 143 Andhra Judges have been allocated to Telangana even though there are 29 vacancies,” he said alleging that this was in violation of AP Reorganization Act 2014.

 

As per the Act and instructions issued by the centre, officers of districts courts and subordinate courts need to function as is until further orders are passed by the government of India. He clarified that the division should only be carried out by the Union government.

 

Lawyers and judges to intensify the agitation

 

Meanwhile, unfazed, lawyers and judicial officers decided to intensify their agitation even as the High Court Registry warned of more suspensions.  The lawyers, who played the most pivotal role during the Telangana movement have sought to meet the state governor.

 

 

The leader of Telangana Lawyers Association, Gandra Mohan Rao said the division was being done at the behest of AP and the centre.

 

“If the tentative division is accepted, Telangana will have no native judges in the next 10-15 years. As the allocated judges are pretty junior with a long tenure of service ahead, there won’t be any further recruitment either,” he said.

 

A delegation of the association led by Mohan Rao and accompanied by TRS MPs K Kesavarao and Vinod Kumar met Union home minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi and apprised him of the fall out of the interim division of judicial officers. 

 

The Telangana Congress has also extended its support to the protesting judges and lawyers and demanded that the bifurcation of the court be done immediately.