It is complete breakdown of relations between judicial officers from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. With the judicial machinery of Telangana on the warpath since June 6, disrupting all work in courts in Telangana (barring the High court of Hyderabad), the other side – the judges from Andhra and the High court – have decided to hit back.
Annoyed at the mass leave for 15 days by nearly 200 judges working in the districts in Telangana, the High court issued an extraordinary order on Wednesday. It withdrew the powers of the district judges and the metropolitan sessions judges to grant leave to any senior or junior civil judge in Telangana. The power to grant leave now has been vested with the 25 judges of the High court. The Telangana judges are not amused since of the 25 HC judges, 18 are from Andhra, 4 from outside the two Telugu states and only 3 from Telangana.
The High court has already suspended eleven judges who took part in the protest march on Sunday, in which they alleged that the High court of Hyderabad, which is meant to function as the High court for both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, is functioning more like the HC of Andhra Pradesh. The judges also refused to work under what they called were “Andhra judicial rulers”.
The Andhra judges, at the receiving end of the debate for the past many days, pilloried as having usurped most posts in Telangana have hit back as well. Pointing to the name calling against Andhra judges and the alleged attack on an Andhra native judicial officer in Warangal, they have demanded protection for all Andhra judicial officers who are working in Telangana.
Since June 6, effigies of Andhra judges have been burnt, with a mock funeral also organised at the court complex in Nizamabad. In Warangal, court halls were forcibly locked by protesting Telangana advocates.
Meanwhile, if court work in Telangana has been hit for three weeks now, Andhra has decided to follow the bad example. The Visakhapatnam Bar Association has decided that no courts will function for the next two days in protest against what they call the “unethical and unjust” behaviour of the Telangana advocates.
The entire issue has spiralled out of control because of the posting of Andhra judges in Telangana. Of the 102 district judges in Telangana, only 30 are from the state while 72 judges are natives of Andhra. This has caused heartburn among the judges, because their chances of getting promoted to the High court will get severely compromised.
All these problems would not arise if the High court of Hyderabad had been divided by now. As far as the High court is concerned, even though united Andhra Pradesh is bifurcated, the court is still a single entity. The bifurcation of the High court has to be done under the AP Reorganisation Act but that cannot happen till the Andhra Pradesh government finds land for a court complex in Amaravati. The Centre has lobbed the ball in Chandrababu Naidu’s court, who is being accused by Telangana of trying to deliberately delay the division of the court, in order to control the Telangana judiciary through the back door.
The Telangana judicial officers say they are not getting justice. The Lordships need to spare a thought also for the thousands of petitioners whose cases are stuck for no fault of theirs.
