HYDERABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to AP government to respond to the special leave petition filed by the Central government challenging the 2015 judgment of the High Court division bench headed by then Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta. The bench had ruled that the high court for AP, whether temporary or permanent, can be set up only on the territory of AP state.
The Apex Court bench was dealing with the SLP filed by the Centre contending that under the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 there is no bar that the existing common High Court cannot be divided into two respective high courts of the states (AP and Telangana) and shifted to a new building/premises in the same city until construction and constitution of a new High Court within the territory of AP state. The Centre sought the court to set aside the impugned judgment of the High Court.
Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the ministry of law, told the court that the AP government has not yet constructed the High Court building even after four years of bifurcation of united AP state. Stressing the need to divide the existing High Court between the two states, he said that at present there were 24 court halls available in the Hyderabad High Court and they can be allotted to AP for functioning of its new high court.
Supporting the stand of the Central government, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Telangana government, submitted that the state government has proposed to vacate the existing premises if required and choose for another premises for functioning of the Telangana High Court. Even the AP high court could be set up in the vacant 24 halls of the existing high court.