The sentiments associated with the proposed shifting of the Andhra Pradesh High Court from Amaravati to Kunrool have become stronger as the Andhra Pradesh government has dug in its heels to develop Kurnool as the Judicial capital, while the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) has extended its support to the ‘Rayalaseema Atma Gourava Maha Rally’for achieving its stated objective of decentralisation.
The issue has become intractable due to lack of consensus among the legal fraternity, not to mention the divergent public opinion.
Advocates from Rayalaseema are insistent that establishment of the High Court in Kurnool will, besides honouring the Sribagh Pact, give a fillip to the development of the parched region, which has some of the driest places in the country.
Some of them have apparently gone to the extent of demanding that the capital itself be set up in Kurnool by citing the historic precedent of the city being one till the unified State of Andhra Pradesh came into existence in 1956.
On the flipside, advocates practising in Amaravati are arguing that mere shifting of the High Court to Kurnool will by no means play the expected catalytic role in the development of that region.
Another point being raised by them is that continuation of the High Court in Amaravati will be convenient to the litigant public as a vast majority of the cases are from the erstwhile Krishna, Guntur, East and West Godavari, and Visakhapatnam districts, which brings into picture the difficulty in travelling from a place as far as Itchapuram in Srikakulam district to Kurnool.
‘Set up Benches in Kurnool, Vizag’
Apart from this, a few advocates in Amaravati are suggesting that the government set up a Bench in Kurnool and another one in Visakhapatnam, and assuage the hurt feelings and cater to the judicial requirements of those places.
All-India Lawyers’ Union State general secretary N. Srinivasa Rao said the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court should not be tinkered with, but its appellate and revisional jurisdiction could be branched out by setting up Benches in Visakhapatnam and Kurnool.
If at all the High Court were to be moved to Kurnool, the relevant provision of the A.P. Reorganization Act, 2014, should be amended, he pointed out.
Another advocate in Amaravati observed that if the issue was to be looked at from territorial perspective, there was no need to shift the High Court, and the government could think of setting up Benches, or totally give up on decentralisation.
M.D.V. Jogaiah Sarma, a senior advocate in Kurnool, said the Sribagh Pact envisaged the capital to be at one place and the High Court to be preferably set up in Rayalaseema, and it should be implemented.
He pointed out that when the capital was moved from Kurnool to Hyderabad, people of the region did not object. “Time has now come to fulfill their desire to at least have the High Court in their midst,” he said.
Thousands of advocates would benefit if the High Court was shifted to Kurnool, and it would spur economic activity that would be good for the people as a whole, Mr. Sarma averred.
