PIL shadow on HC

Andhra High Court when infrastructure is in place: Centre

New Delhi: The issue of High Court bifurcation is back to square one. Telangana has to wait for the final decision of the High Court of Judicature of Hyderabad where a review PIL of the Telangana government is pending. Throwing the ball back into the High Court of Judicature, Union Minister of Law D V Sadananda Gowda said as the matter was sub-judice because of the review PIL filed by the Telangana government in the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad the Centre was in no position to move forward.

The High Court had already asked the AP government to earmark the location and also the infrastructure necessary for creating a new High Court and once it was done, the Centre would act without further delay. Reacting to the demand of the TRS MPs in the House here on Wednesday, the minister said as per the Reorganisation Act, it was up to the Andhra Pradesh government to choose the location of the High Court and create necessary infrastructure and this had to be done in consultation with the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad.

Once the decision on all relevant aspects and necessary infrastructure was made available, the Central government would take immediate steps to issue the notification under the relevant provisions of the law, he said. The Union government had already addressed the Chief Justice of the High Court and the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh to take all the necessary steps towards the creation of a separate High Court for the State of Andhra Pradesh, he said. However, the delay was due to litigation, he said.

At this juncture, TRS MP Jithender Reddy intervened to point out that Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs M Venkaiah Naidu had assured the House on Tuesday that the government was trying to address the issue to resolve the same. Certain remarks made by Reddy and K Kavitha at this juncture were expunged.

Jithender Reddy reiterated that the High Court could be located in Hyderabad just as other offices of the AP government had been. The review petition had nothing to do with the matter being sub-judice and it was merely a political decision. Kavitha too joined the argument here to claim that an attempt was being made to rule Telangana through the High Court.

Venkaiah Naidu got up to add that the Centre was clear about creating two High Courts for the two states. Both the Parliament and the party (the BJP) were in favour of it, he said. Hence, it was not fair on the part of anyone to blame one party or the other. Moreover, the BJP being a national party kept the interests of everyone in mind dealing with emotive issues.

The suggestion of the Telangana government that the High Court could be located in Hyderabad was meaningful, he said but the issue had to be clinched before the High Court where the PIL was pending. He also requested the Union Law Minister to intervene and place before the High Court of Judicature the practical difficulties in locating the new High Court in the residuary state immediately. The suggestion made by TRS MP Vinod Kumar in this regard should be taken cognizance of, he said and urged upon the Law Minister to take the High Court too into confidence in resolving the issue.