VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court will start functioning from the capital region Amaravati from January 1 as notified by the President. However, it will not operate from the Judicial Complex at Nelapadu as initially planned, but will be housed either in the Chief Minister’s camp office or the Roads and Buildings (R&B) State office in Vijayawada.
“The Judicial Complex works are apace and will take another 20 days or so. But, the notification has already been issued. So, tentatively, we will propose to house the High Court either in the CM’s camp office or the R&B building, whichever they (authorities concerned) will choose,” Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu told media on Thursday.
While welcoming the notification of bifurcation of the Hyderabad High Court at the foundation-laying ceremony of the Secretariat in the morning, he acknowledged the inconvenience involved in the relocation of the judges and other paraphernalia at the media interaction later in the evening. He also assured that the State government will extend all possible help to ease the inconvenience.
“There is severe inconvenience, but we have to overcome it. If they want any incentives, we will give them also. I requested the Chief Secretary and the General Administration Department to coordinate. We will consult the parties concerned and accommodate them as per their requirement,” he added.
Even though Naidu is confident that the pending works of the Judicial Complex in Amaravati will be completed in three weeks, the ground reality appears to be different. Those working at the project site told TNIE that the works will take at least a month or two more to be completed.
“We are working on the elevation of the building and we still have to do the interiors. It will take a month or two for the entire structure to be completely ready,” an official said.On its part, the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) maintained that the Judicial Complex would be ready by January.
“If not all the halls, we will finish works related to enough rooms so that the High Court can start functioning. The other patch work will be completed as the court functions, just like we did in the case of the Interim Government Complex in Velagapudi,” an APCRDA official said on condition of anonymity.
Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister said that the State government is building a permanent High Court in proximity to the Judicial Complex. The permanent structure has been designed after Buddha Stupa and will have first-of-its-kind facilities in India, he added.