The issue of bifurcation of Hyderabad High Court continued to boil on Friday with thousands of advocates and judicial employees from Telangana staging a day-long protest at Indira Park.
The protest was called by several organisations including the Joint Action Committee of Telangana Advocates, Federation of Bar Associations of Telangana and Judicial Employees Association and the High Court Employees Association to protest against the suspension of 15 lower court judges and other officers by the HC for taking part in the agitation. The advocates and the judicial officers were in up arms against the allocation of Andhra judges to Telangana without waiting for the bifurcation of the HC.
Some of the protestors at today’s sit had shackles on their hands to symbolise that they were in shackles of “Andhra judges”.
They also carried banners with slogans against Andhra Judges like “Go Back”. Another banner asked, “Is it justice. In the Hon’ble High Court of AP & TS 21 judges were from AP and only two judges from Telangana”.
The High Court started tacking action against the lower court judges for violation of code of conduct after they participated in March to Raj Bhawan and tendered their resignations to the president of Judges Association as a mark of protest. The functioning of the courts in Telangana had come to a standstill as the judges were on mass leave and advocates were also boycotting the courts.
Meanwhile Telangana Political JAC convenor Prof Kodandaram has also come forward in support of the agitating advocates saying injustice should not be done to the Telangana judicial officers. He said that the HC had shown haste in making allocation of lower court judges to the two states without waiting for the bifurcation of High Court.
“Entire Telangana society is demanding a separate High Court for the state”, he said.
On the other hand the union minister of state Sujana Choudhary, who belongs to AP, said that the state does not have any objection to the bifurcation of the High Court. He said that the AP government had allocated the land for the High Court and a central team had inspected it.
The issue has generated a lot of political heat and tension in both the states. As a counter to the agitating in Telangana, Andhra lawyers have also come on the streets in AP. lawyers boycotted the courts across Andhra Pradesh on Thursday and held demonstration alleging that the Telangana lawyers had attacked a judge KV Narasimhlu in Warangal district court when he was on duty.