A full bench of the Telangana High Court on Thursday reserved order in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) relating to transfer of certain cases to the newly constituted Andhra Pradesh HC.
AP HC Advocates Association president K.B. Ramanna Dora, in the past, had written to the HC seeking transfer of pending cases related to AP from Telangana HC to AP HC. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice A. Rajasheker Reddy had taken up the letter as PIL.
Since the petition involved many legal technicalities and complex issues, the CJ decided to refer the matter to a full bench.
The full bench comprising CJ Radhakrishnan, Justice A. Rajasheker Reddy and Justice Sanjay Kumar heard the arguments of the petitioners and the respondents.
The CJ categorised the cases as AP-related civil cases, criminal matters and the writ petitions that had AP geography as their origin.
These cases can be transferred on completion of segregation, the bench said.
However, a call had to be taken on writ appeals, reviews and matters related to contempt of court should remain with the Telagana High Court.
The cases in which both States are respondents and comprise issues relating to composite seniority of employees in service matters and other cases need to be examined on case-to-case basis, the Chief Justice said.
There could be some more complex matters such as wife working in one area and the spouse was allocated to work in another State.
The point as to which of the two HCs will have the primacy of being called the residuary High Court also had to be examined.
After hearing the arguments, the full bench of the High Court reserved the orders.