SC clears decks for Hyerabad HC split, AP court by New Year

HYDERABAD: Taking on record the assurance given by Andhra Pradesh that it will ready its makeshift AP high court building at Amaravati by December 15, 2018, and the desire expressed by Telangana to have its own separate high court, the Supreme Court said there is no embargo on the competent authority (President of India) to issue a notification now for bifurcating the existing Hyderabad high court into two separate HCs for AP and Telangana by new year.

“We expect such a notification to be issued by January 1, 2019, so that the two high courts start functioning separately and the high court of AP too starts functioning in the new building at the earliest,” a bench of Supreme Court comprising Justice AK Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan said in its latest order. Though this order was dated October 29, it was released on Monday.

The bench was disposing of an appeal filed by the Union law ministry against a 2015 Hyderabad HC order of a bench headed by Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta in a case filed by T Dhangopal and others.

The HC, in this case, ruled out the possibility of setting up a high court for AP in Hyderabad even on a temporary basis.

The law ministry, in its plea, wanted this embargo to be lifted so that it can notify two separate high courts and both can function from Hyderabad itself till AP completes the task of constructing its high court in AP.

But the Supreme Court order did not say anything on setting aside Justice Sengupta’s order. It only said that there is no embargo now on the Centre to notify the two HCs as AP itself has come forward to construct its building by December 15, 2018.

A legal authority from AP told TOI that the apex court did not look at the challenge to the 2015 order as everyone is ready to bifurcate the Hyderabad current and AP is ready to have its HC at Amaravati.

The need for reviewing that order has now become academic and, hence, the apex court did not address it, the source said.

SC records HC affidavit contents

The Supreme Court, in its latest order, has also recorded the contents of the Hyderabad High Court’s affidavit that spoke of the full court approval to the proposal of AP chief minister to shift the AP HC into an interim judicial complex, which is currently under construction.

A committee of judges that visited the Amaravati area expressed satisfaction about the under-construction building and also about the rented villas proposed for the judges as residential accommodation. All this is till the completion of Justice City, where a permanent structure for AP HC will come up.