Following a Supreme Court order to the Centre to notify the bifurcation of the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana High Courts by January 1, President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday ordered the separation of the “common” Hyderabad High Court into the two separate High Courts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Both will function separately from January 1, 2019.
The principal seat of the Andhra Pradesh High Court is Amaravati, the capital of the State. The High Court in Hyderabad will function separately as the High Court of the State of Telangana.
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16 judges for A.P.
Sixteen HC judges, including Justice Ramesh Ranganathan, who is now the Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court, shall become judges of the Andhra Pradesh High Court from January 1.
The other judges of the Andhra Pradesh High Court are Justices Chagari Praveen Kumar, Sarasa Venkatanarayana Bhatti, Akula Venkata Sesha Sai, Dama Seshadri Naidu (now working on transfer as a Kerala High Court judge), Mandhata Seetharama Murti, Upmaka Durga Prasad Rao, Talluri Sunil Chowdary, Mallavolu Satyanarayana Murthy, Gudiseva Shyam Prasad, Kumari Javalakar Uma Devi, Nakka Balayogi, Telaprolu Rajani, Durvasula Venkata Subramanya Suryanarayana Somayajulu, Kongara Vijaya Lakshmi and Manthoj Ganga Rao.
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The new Telangana High Court will have a strength of 10 judges. They are Justices Puligoru Venkata Sanjay Kumar, Mamidanna Satya Ratna Sri Ramachandra Rao, Adavalli Rajasheker Reddy, Ponugoti Naveen Rao, Challa Kodandaram Chowdary, Bulusu Siva Sankara Rao, Dr. Shameem Akther, Potlapalli Keshava Rao, Abhinand Kumar Shavili and Todupunuri Amarnath Goud.
The Presidential notification quoted Article 214 of the Constitution which provides that there shall be a High Court for each State. It pointed out that under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, both States were to have a common high court, till separate ones were formed.
The notification mentioned the Supreme Court order that there was “no embargo for the Competent Authority to issue a notification bifurcating the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad into the High Court of Telangana and the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, respectively, and such a notification to be issued by the 1st day of January, 2019 so that the two High Courts start functioning separately and the High Court of Andhra Pradesh also starts functioning in the new building at the earliest.”
It mentioned that Justice R. Subhash Reddy, now a Supreme Court judge and formerly a judge of the common High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad, “had exercised the option for allocation to High Court for the State of Telangana.”
In November, senior advocate Fali Nariman for Andhra Pradesh had informed a Supreme Court Bench led by Justice A.K. Sikri that the judges, who would preside over the courtrooms of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, were satisfied with the facilities at an interim building complex which would house the High Court till a permanent building was constructed.
Judges’ accommodation
Mr. Nariman had submitted that a Full Court of the High Court approved the proposal after the inspection committee of judges submitted a report. He had made a statement that the government would be hiring villas to take care of the residential needs of the judges at Amaravati.
The court had taken on record the submissions made by the Andhra Pradesh government that a “very big complex known as ‘Justice City’ is under construction” in Amaravati. This complex would house the High Court, subordinate courts and even some tribunals. It would also have a provision for construction of a residential complex for the High Court and lower courts’ judges.