Judges stir: Telangana CM meets Governor

Amid ongoing stir by lawyers and judges in Telangana against provisional allocation of judicial officers hailing from Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao today called on Governor ESL Narasimhan here. Though there was no official word on the meeting immediately, it is understood that the ongoing row figured in the talks. Rao had yesterday urged the Centre to expedite the process of division of the high court here (in the wake of bifurcation of undivided AP). In a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, he requested appropriate notification to take up the exercise of allocating judicial officers and staff be issued only after the high courts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh start functioning separately. He said in the letter that the tentative allocation of subordinate judicial officers has created a discontent among the judicial officers and advocate community belonging to Telangana as many officers of Andhra Pradesh were allocated to Telangana. TRS MP K Kavitha, daughter of Rao, said yesterday that her father proposes to hold a dharna in Delhi against the alleged insensitivity of Centre in bifurcating the HC, though they don't want things to "escalate to that level". Union Law Minister D V Sadandanda Gowda had said that the Centre has no role in creation of a new High Court for Telangana, rubbishing the ruling TRS' charge that the Narendra Modi dispensation is being "insensitive" on the issue and dragging the matter under political pressure. Holding that the state government's stand on the issue is "unacceptable and intolerable," Gowda said the creation of a new HC is in the hands of the Chief Minister and Chief Justice of the common high court for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Meanwhile, the TDP's Telangana unit demanded Narasimhan to use his good offices to see that the matter is resolved amicably. Advocates and judicial employees across Telangana have been protesting since June 6 against the provisional allocation. On Sunday, over 100 judges had submitted a representation to the governor on the issue. Telangana Advocates JAC had claimed that out of the 21 judges at the Hyderabad High Court, 18 are natives of Andhra Pradesh and only three are from Telangana. They are seeking preparation of a fresh list of allocation between the two states as per the native district declared by the judicial officers at the time of their entry into service based on the guidelines on bifurcation of lower judiciary and under AP Reorganisation Act.