Decks cleared for formation of AP High Court

Decks have been cleared for the formation of a separate High Court for Andhra Pradesh, with the Ministry of Law and Justice giving a go ahead signal.

Official sources said the Supreme Court had also recently asked the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad to initiate the process of determining the strength of judges to be allocated to the new High Court to be set up. The issue of setting up a High Court for the State of Andhra Pradesh had been hanging fire and Telangana had represented to the Centre to expedite the process.

According to the AP Reorganisation Act, after the bifurcation of the State, a separate High Court for the State of Andhra Pradesh has to be created and the existing High Court would be renamed High Court of State of Telangana.

However, the issue of the location of the High Court has not been finalised and the newly formed High Court will have to sit at a location decided by the Chief Justice of the High Court with the approval of the Governor. The Telangana government, has however, mooted the idea of locating the new High Court on the premises of the King Kothi palace. However, a decision on this has not been taken, sources added. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had recently inspected the King Kothi palace premises on a surprise visit.

Section 34 (2) of the AP Reorganisation Act stipulates the conditions in which the advocates on the roll of the Bar Council of the existing High Court to indicate their preference for transfer to the Bar Council of Telangana within a year.

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Decks cleared for formation of AP High Court