Hyderabad: The fallout over delays in the bifurcation of the Hyderabad High Court, and the appointment of Andhra Pradesh-origin judges in Telangana, was threatening to escalate further on Tuesday.
Tensions mounted between Telangana and India’s central government as the High Court suspended three more lower court judges for alleged violations of the code of conduct.
The action brought the number of lower court judges suspended for participating in the agitation to five.
The registrar (vigilance) of the Hyderabad High Court issued the orders on Tuesday suspending the lower court judges Radhakrishna Chouhan, Ramakant and Tirupati.
This came even as yesterday’s development had poured vitriol on the ongoing agitation by the judicial officers and advocates across Telangana.
While Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) was so much incensed over the perceived lack of action by the Centre that he decided to stage a sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, the Telangana High Court Advocates Association has demanded the recall of the Acting Chief Justice of High Court Dilip P. Bhosle.
Sources at the Chief Minister’ Office said KCR was very unhappy over the prevailing situation.
“The chief minister strongly feels that grave injustice was done to Telangana on the issues ranging from the delay in bifurcation of the High Court to the appointment of judges”, sources said.
At the meeting with his ministers and the leaders KCR expressed his frustration that despite his repeated representations the Centre had deliberately adopted an indifferent attitude and neglected Telangana’s demand for separate High Court.
Sources said the Chief Minister was in favour of making Delhi the centre of the agitation to force the Central government to change its attitude and ensure justice to the judicial officers and the people of the state.
Sources said the chief minister was contemplating going to New Delhi along with ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs and stage a sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar.
Meanwhile the chief minister’s daughter and TRS lawmaker, K. Kavitha, told journalists in Hyderabad her father was very disheartened over the insensitivity of the centre.
She confirmed that the chief minister was contemplating a protest in Delhi. At the same time she said the Telangana government does not want things to escalate to that level.
Pointing out that if the chief minister sits in protest at Jantar Mantar, it would become an international issue, Kavita urged the prime minister to intervene and solve the issue.
“Our chief minister is very disheartened by the insensitivity of the central government. We propose to go ahead and express our protest in Delhi. But we do not want things to escalate to that level. We once again sincerely appeal to th honourable Prime Minister to intervene at this juncture and bifurcate the High Court,” she said.
In a reflection of the emotions sparked off by the High Court action a Telangana advocate tried to self-immolate before the Hyderabad City Civil Court and suffered burn injuries. Doctors described his condition as out of danger.
As the lower court judges and other judicial officers were up in arms against majority of the posts of subordinate judges in the state going to the judges of Andhra origin, Telangana Rashtra Samiti government was also forced to break its silence on the sensitive issue.
Concerned that the situation may get out of hand, KCR held a late night consultation with the senior ministers and party leaders and expressed his unhappiness over the inordinate delay by the Center in bifurcation of the Hyderabad High Court.
Ever since the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in June 2014, the Hyderabad High Court was functioning as the common High Court for both Telugu states.
The advocates and the judicial officers of Telangana were demanding that the allocation of the subordinate judicial officers of AP and Telangana should be kept in abeyance till the High Court was bifurcated. But ignoring their demands, the Hyderabad High Court issued the list of provisional allocations earlier this month sparking a statewide agitation.
After almost a fortnight long protest, all the Telangana judges resigned from their posts en masse and handed over their resignation letters to the President of the Telangana Judges Association on Sunday.
The High Court has expressed its ire over the move and termed it a violation of code of conduct governing the judges.
Angered over the suspension of their colleagues, the Telangana judges went on a mass leave on Tuesday. At a meeting of the executive committee of the Judges Association today a resolution was passed condemning the suspensions and future course of action was discussed.
The Federation of the Telangana Bar Associations has also called for “Chalo High Court” (March) on Wednesday as a protest against the suspensions.
On the call of various bodies advocates all over Telangana stayed away from the court rooms and held protest demonstrations outside the court complexes in all the districts of the state.
In Hyderabad tension gripped the High Court area as angry lawyers tried to barge in to the complex shouting slogans. But the police stopped them and took some of them in to custody. Security was tightened around the High Court complex.
