KCR urges Centre to quicken High Court bifurcation

​Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday urged the Centre to expedite the process of division of the present high court, saying the provisional allocation of judicial officers has created a discontent among them and lawyers belonging to the state.

In a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, he requested appropriate notification to take up the exercise of allocating judicial officers and staff be issued only after the high courts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh start functioning separately. The letter came amid an ongoing stir by Telangana lawyers and judges seeking bifurcation of the high court (following division of undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2014) and also against provisional allocation of judicial officers between AP and Telangana.

KCR said the tentative allocation of subordinate judicial officers has created discontent among the judicial officers and advocate community belonging to Telangana as many officers of Andhra Pradesh were allocated to Telangana. If this allocation is made final, it would seriously affect the future prospects of judicial officers from Telangana in terms of their promotion and subsequent elevation to High Court, he said.

Recalling that orders were given by the Centre on May 31, 2014 (as per the AP Reorganisation Act) directing the officers of the district courts and courts subordinate thereto to function as is where is basis until further orders, Rao said position cannot be changed and no allocation can be made in the absence of any further orders by Centre. He also said that domiciling was understood to be the criterion in allocations when Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand were formed.