HYDERABAD: In a significant development, the Central government on Friday issued orders appointing advocates Tadakamalla Vinod Kumar, Annireddy Abhishek Reddy and Kunuru Lakshman as judges of the Telangana High Court. The Ministry of Law and Justice issued a notification stating that the President has given his consent for the appointments.
They would become judges with effect from the date they assume charge. Their seniority was fixed as per the existing practice. K Lakshman is presently assistant solicitor general, appearing for the Central government before the High Court. Apart from the Chief Justice, the strength of the high court judges now stands at 13 as against the sanctioned strength of 24.
On July 25, the Supreme Court Collegium recommended the appointment of above three advocates under Bar quota and forwarded its proposal to the Centre to get President’s nod. In order to ascertain suitability of the above named persons for their elevation to the Telangana High Court bench, the Collegium consulted its colleague conversant with the affairs of this High Court for his opinion.
On the same day, the Collegium also recommended appointment of four advocates as judges of Andhra Pradesh High Court, who included R Raghunandan Rao, Battu Devanand, D Ramesh and N Jayasurya saying that they were suitable for being elevated to AP High court bench.
Telangana High Court gets three new judges
For the above recommendation, the Apex Court Collegium has passed a resolution stating that the recommendation of the above seven names were made by the then Chief Justice of erstwhile Hyderabad High Court which was common to the states of AP and Telangana on Oct 9, 2018, in consultation with his colleagues. Views of the Chief Minister and Governor were also placed in the related file.
While the above proposal was under process, two separate High Courts viz. AP High Court and Telangana High Court came to be constituted on Jan 1, 2019. The seven recommendees were accordingly being considered for elevation in their respective High Courts.