Govt awaiting expert panel report on shifting of High Court to Kurnool

Amaravati: The state government on Thursday clarified that the issue of setting up High Court bench or shifting of High Court to Kurnool will be decided after the expert committee constituted by the government submits its report.

The government stated this while giving a reply to a question raised by MLCs KE Prabhakar, NMD Farooq and B Tirumala Naidu. The members asked Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, "Whether the government was contemplating setting up the High Court or High Court bench in Kurnool as per the Sri Bagh Pact. If so, the steps taken in this regard".

Replying to it, Adimulapu Suresh, Minister for Human Resource Development, said that the Capital functions consists of executive, legislative and judicial functions. "To decide comprehensively where from all these have to be delivered and to develop the state an Expert Committee has been constituted. The government is waiting for the report of the committee," he said.

Further, he explained that the Sri Bagh Pact was entered as per the circumstances at that time, which would not be relevant now. The Minister also informed the House that there were demands from various places in the state for setting up of the High Court, including from Kurnool, Visakhapatnam, even from Guntur and others.

It may be mentioned here that, the Union Government also reacted on the same issue in the Lok Sabha during the Winter Session, where it has clarified that the setting up of the High Court is the discretion of the state government. At present the AP High Court was set up at Amaravati the new capital city and it has been functioning from there.