HYDERABAD: The bifurcation of judicial officers should be done by the Central government and as per the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao demanded Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
The CM wrote a letter to Rajnath Singh on Tuesday on the bifurcation of the judicial officers between AP and TS.
"The allocation of judicial officers should be done as per the precedents of previous bifurcation of states in the country as also the provisions of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. Further, the allocation should be made by the competent authority, which is the Central government in this case," the chief minister told Rajnath Singh.
Full text of letter written by KCR to Rajnath Singh:
"Dear Rajnath Singh ji, This is to bring to your kind notice that an exercise was done by the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad allocating the judicial officers between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and a tentative list was released on 3.5.2016 calling for objections to this allocation. As per the list, out of 205 judicial officers working in the cadre of District Judge as on 2.6.2014, the number of officers allocated to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is 95 and 110 respectively. Further, out of the 95 judicial officers allotted to Telangana, as many as 58 belong to AP. These officers have been allotted to Telangana in spite of the fact that as per the sanctioned cadre strength of 234 in the undivided state, there are still 29 vacancies in AP, which have not been filled up. In all cadres of judicial officers, including senior and junior civil judges altogether 143 officers of AP were allocated to Telangana state.
This tentative allocation of Subordinate Judicial Officers has created discontent among the judicial officers and advocate community of Telangana. If this allocation is made final, it would seriously affect the future prospects of Judicial Officers from Telangana in terms of their promotion and subsequent elevation to High Court. In this connection, I would like to bring the following points to your kind notice:
a) As per AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, orders were given by the Government of India vide order No 7, dated 31.5.2014 directing the Officers of the District Courts and Courts subordinate thereto to function on as is where is basis until further orders are passed by Government of India in accordance with the provisions of the Act. Therefore, in the absence of any further orders by Government of India, this position cannot be changed and no allocation can be made.
b) As stated earlier, the allocation should be made only by the Government of India under the provision of the Section 77 read with Section 80, even in case of Judicial Officers as they are all employees of the State government, though under the administrative control of the High Court.
c) In the previous bifurcation of States, when Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand were created, in the matters like this, the High Courts of both the States had sent proposals to the Government of India and the allocations were made only after that. Further it is understood that in case of these three States, domicile was the criterion for allotment. There is another provision in the Act to constitute a Committee within 30 days under section 80, which was not done in case of Judicial Officers.
d) The provisions of Constitution as laid down in Article 3 and 4 exclusively deal with the formation of a new state and have an overriding effect on all other provisions of the Constitution including Article 233, 234 and 235 in the context of allocation of judicial officers in the newly created State of Telangana.
The Government of India may therefore consider these aspects, so that the allocation of Judicial Officers is done strictly as per the precedents of previous bifurcation of States in India as also the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, and further the allocation should be made by the competent authority, which is Government of India in this case.
I would also like to point out that as per section 31 of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, the High Court for Andhra Pradesh has to be established duly dividing the present High Court and this process is still pending. I would reiterate that process initiated by the intent of Parliament to divide the State and create Telangana is incomplete as the division is limited to the executive and legislature only as the High Court is yet to be divided. Therefore, it is requested that the Government India should not only take steps to expedite the process of division of the present High Court, but also issue appropriate notification to take up the exercise to divide and allocate the Judicial Officers and Staff only after the High Courts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh start functioning separately.
Yours sincerely,K Chandrasekhar Rao