A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice P. V. Sanjay Kumar on Thursday declared that the arguments in review petitions in the case pertaining to bifurcation of the Hyderabad High Court were completed and the judgment was reserved.
The bench was dealing with the cases arising out of PIL filed by Dhanpal Rao on formation of a separate high court for AP. It may be recalled that the PIL was disposed of by a division bench headed by the then Chief Justice in May 2015. The bench declared that the high court for the state of AP should be situated within the geographical boundaries of AP state only. The contention that it could be located at Hyderabad for some time at least was rejected. The Telangana state and several interveners from Telangana field petitions seeking review of the judgment.
The bench heard the arguments the whole day. K.Ramakrishna Reddy, Advocate-General of Telangana, submitted that the Telangana state was ready to offer suitable accommodation for the AP high court and the earlier order that this exclusive high court for AP could not be situated in Hyderabad was not correct.
D. Prakash Reddy, senior counsel appearing for Telangana, said the issue was not building alone. There was no bar for the AP high court to function from Hyderabad. G. Vidya Sagar, senior advocate and amicus curiae, said that the formation of a separate high court for AP must be done quickly. Dammalapati Srinivas, Advocate-General of AP, contended that the judgment need not be reviewed and no case was made out for review and the case could not be reargued in the name of review. He argued that the AP government could choose any place in AP to set up a high court but if it was at the capital only the Central government would give financial assistance.
Natraj, Additional Solicitor General of India, representing the Union of India, said that only when the infrastructure was ready and application was made, would the Central government take further steps. Then the President would notify the place of AP high court. When the bench wanted him to clarify whether the AP high court could be situated in Hyderabad, he said that this was a hypothetical question. He said the Centre would not finance the establishment of the AP high court if it was set up outside the territory of the state of AP. He said the judgment had put restrictions on the Centre too. The bench wanted counsel to give the legal propositions by Friday and said that the judgment would be delivered later.
