Advocates practising in the Andhra Pradesh High Court (HC) staged a protest on Monday against any attempt to shift the HC to Rayalaseema and made an appeal to acting Chief Justice C. Praveen Kumar and other judges and A.P. Bar Council chairman Ganta Rama Rao for retaining the HC in Amaravati. They insisted that it would be prudent to make Amaravati the permanent principal seat of the HC.
Meanwhile, in a letter to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Guntur District Bar Associations’ Federation (GDBAF) chairman Ch. Narendra Babu stated that there was a reasonable apprehension in the minds of the advocates in the coastal region following statements by some politicians and media reports that the HC might be shifted from Amaravati.
‘Central location’
Mr. Babu said Amaravati was centrally located and a majority of the pending cases in the HC were from the coastal districts.
He pointed out that the establishment of HC in Amaravati was the result of several agitations by advocates from the coastal region before the unified State of A.P. was bifurcated.
Advocates from Rayalaseema had supported the setting of a HC Bench between Vijayawada and Guntur. Besides, Guntur was the seat of the HC between 1953 and 1956 before the formation of A.P.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India was pleased to lay the foundation for a permanent building of the HC in Amaravati. At this juncture, rumours of shifting of the HC were going around, which was neither in the interest of advocates nor the litigants, Mr. Babu said.