Bifurcate High Court on priority

Hyderabad: With the appointment of AP native judicial officers in Telangana State snowballing into a major controversy among the judiciary and the Centre’s sharp reaction, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday shot off a letter to the Union government demanding immediate bifurcation of the High Court and also to issue notification to allocate the judicial officers only after the High Courts of the two states function separately.

In a letter to Union Home minister Rajnath Singh late on Tuesday night, he said out of 95 subordinate judicial officers allotted to Telangana, 58 belong to Andhra Pradesh. Though 29 vacancies were existing in the AP quota, AP judicial officers were allotted to Telangana, he said. In all cadres of judicial officers including senior and junior judges altogether 143 officers of AP were allocated to T state, the Chief Minister said. “The allocation has created discontent among the judicial officers and advocate community belonging to Telangana.

“If this allocation is made final, it would seriously affect the further prospects of judicial officers from Telangana in terms of their promotion and subsequent elevation to High court,” KCR said. He said the allocation of judicial officers should be done strictly as per the provisions of the AP Reorgnisation Act, 2014 which directed the officers of the district courts and court subordinates thereto to function on ‘ as is where is’ basis until further orders are passed by the Union government .

The Chief Minister informed the Union minister that the allocation should be made by the Centre under provision 77 even in case of judicial officers as they are all employees of the State government , though under the administrative control of the High Court.