Telangana advocates, judicial staff launch protest

Resent “unlawful decisions of the Acting Chief Justice on administrative matters, especially the provisional allocation of judicial officers”

Tough stand:Advocates at the Secunderabad Civil Court boycott work on Monday in protest over judges from Andhra Pradesh working in Telangana courts.— Photo: K.V.S. Giri

Advocates and judicial employees across Telangana on Monday launched a week-long protest in the form of lunch-hour demonstrations outside courts - right from the High Court here to those down to the taluk-level - voicing their angst at the provisional allocation of judicial officers between the two States.

This decision was taken at an emergency meeting of advocates and judicial officers in Telangana at the Bar Association Hall on Sunday. Also, a ‘Chalo High Court’ will be undertaken on June 13, against what were termed “unlawful decisions of the Acting Chief Justice on administrative matters, especially the provisional allocation of judicial officers.”

‘Injustice”

General secretary of the All India Judicial Employees Confederation, B. Laxma Reddy told The Hindu that even people with hardly any knowledge of how the law worked “could understand the injustice of filling up 72 of the sanctioned strength of 102 posts of Judges in Telangana with those who were born and bred in Andhra Pradesh.” This was regardless of the fact that post-bifurcation, there were 46 vacancies of Judges positions in Andhra Pradesh.

“We do not mind having people hailing from AP as Judges here, but posting them here when there are vacancies there is not proper. There are anywhere between 10,000 and 12,000 practising advocates in Telangana,” he said.

The only exceptions they would not have an objection to were those pertaining to spouse cases and those ‘about to retire’ in a year or so, he said.

“Otherwise, judicial officers in Telangana will continue to suffer the injustice that they have seen for decades now. Those from AP when posted in Telangana will rob us of our due,” Mr. Laxma Reddy charged.

The organisations that are spearheading the cause include the Telangana State Judicial Employees Associations and the Federation of Advocates in Bar Associations, represented by Jitender Reddy.

With respect to what they felt was an “inordinate delay in bifurcation of the High Court,” they said a decision would be taken on their course of action at a meeting on June 13.