Even as lawyers in Telangana resorted to agitations for equal representation and fair treatment in State judicial services and the High Court, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to file an affidavit detailing guidelines for the allocation of work to individual employees under Section 80 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.
The apex court's order came on a writ petition filed by the Telangana Judges Association for direction to bifurcate the lower judiciary from the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh State Judicial Services and constitute the Telangana Judicial Service under Articles 233 and 234 of the Constitution of India and fix the cadre strength of each State.
Section 80 of the 2014 Act mandates that it is the Centre's responsibility to ensure “fair and equitable treatment to persons affected”. Either the Centre or the respective State Advisory Committee should issue the employees' allocation guidelines.
Notification challengedJudicial officers under the State judicial services come under the category of 'employees' under the 2014 Act.
The petition has also challenged a notification issued on February 5, 2015 by the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the State of Telangana and the State of Andhra Pradesh to screen judicial officers for 97 posts “without making any making classification”. This, it contended, was “illegal and arbitrary in the light of Act 2014”.
“It is submitted that in the light of the 2014 Act, the recruitments ought to be made separately for each recently formed States and the vacancy position of each State has to be arrived at afresh,” the petition, filed by advocate Beena Madhavan and argued by senior advocate Indira Jaising, said.
Telangana ignored“The representation of Telangana judges is only 25 per cent in the judiciary, reflecting the enormity of injustice caused to Telangana judges,” the petition said.
