Lawyers blame Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu for delay in setting up of AP High Court

Visakhapatnam: Andhra Pradesh Advocates’ Joint Action Committee on Sunday blamed Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu for allegedly delaying finalisation of the location of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. [caption id=“attachment_2237458” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu. IBNLive[/caption] Visakhapatnam Bar Association (VBA) and Joint Action Committee co-ordinator J Prithvi Raj said that at a time when advocates in Telangana and the Telangana state government have been exerting pressure on the central government for immediate bifurcation of the common High Court in Hyderabad, Naidu is yet to initiate any step to set up a high court in Andhra Pradesh. The committee plans to launch a fresh agitation for immediate setting up of the Andhra Pradesh High Court and its future course of action is to be decided at a meeting to be held either at Ongole or Rajahmundry in June, he said. He said that the AP Re-organisation Act provides for a separate AP High Court which need not be set up in the capital and could be established anywhere in the state. As per provisions of the AP Re-organisation Act, the central government has assured financial assistance for provisions of basic requirements for a High Court and Union Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda had said that the Centre would quickly establish a separate AP High Court if the government finalise its location, gave infrastructure as well as basic facilities to establish the same, he said. Despite this, he said that AP CM Naidu is still silent about setting up the AP High Court citing “silly reasons” like government being cash-strapped and lack of infrastructure. “When Andhra Pradesh was separated from the composite Madras Presidency in 1956, the then AP government had set up an AP High Court, but our chief minister has deliberately delayed finalising the High Court’s location and creating infrastructure for the same. MLAs and MPs from AP also lack political will to set up the AP High Court immediately,” he said. He said that while disposing of a writ petition, a division bench comprising High Court Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P V Sanjay Kumar had observed that the AP High Court ought to be located in the territory of AP alone, though there could be separate circuit benches to cater to the needs of the state. Senior advocates S Krishna Mohan and VBA secretary MS Madhav said that Visakhapatnam is the best-suited city in AP to locate the High Court since it not only had the ambiance and infrastructure but also air, train and road connectivity, besides infrastructure as well as legal education institutes. PTI