Supreme Court notice to Telangana, Andhra Pradesh on High Court split

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought the response of the AP and TS governments and the Hyderabad High Court on the Centre’s appeal challenging the High Court orders which directed the Union of India to locate a site within Andhra Pradesh for setting up a permanent High Court for that state. The Centre blamed the AP government for not spending the Rs 500 crore that it had released on March 31, 2015, for the construction of the Raj Bhavan, High Court, Secretariat and Assembly buildings.

The Centre told the apex court that the AP government had not taken effective steps for construction of the court building, thereby creating hostility in the working relations of the two Telugu states. A bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and Ashok Bhushan issued notice, returnable in two weeks, after hearing Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal for the Centre and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi for Telangana state. AP was not represented in the court on Friday.

The AG said the High Court in Hyderabad had a sufficient number of court halls for the two High Courts to function separately. He said Hyderabad was a common capital for 10 years and such an arrangement could be made. The Centre said that under the Reorganisation Act of 2014, there was no bar that pending construction of a building within AP, the common High Court at Hyderabad should not be bifurcated.

The Centre said that of all the pending cases at the Hyderabad High Court, only one third belonged to Telangana state and and disposal was being delayed because of non-bifurcation. Mr Rohatgi said, “we (people of Telangana) are suffering because of the delay caused by AP. There are 24 additional court halls in the existing building, which can be utilised for the separate High Court. If they (AP government) are not willing, we will even move out to a new building. But bifurcation has to be done immediately.”