Bedlam in AP HC amid mass judge suspensions; Telangana lawyers to boycott court

The High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad is facing immense pressure from members of the Bar and the subordinate judiciary over the allocation of lower court judges..The issue stems from a provisional allocation list of subordinate judicial officers dated May 3 of this year, by which 135 judges from Andhra Pradesh were allocated to courts in Telangana..Lawyers and judges from the fledgling state did not take too kindly to this decision, and have been protesting since June 6. Earlier this month, lawyers of the Telangana High Court Advocates Association conducted a protest at the High Court..On Sunday, subordinate judges from the state joined in the protest, and led a procession in the streets of Hyderabad. The Telangana Judges Association, led by President K Ravinder Reddy, even approached the state’s Governor, ESL Narasimhan, with their demands..Speaking to Bar & Bench, General Secretary of the Advocates Association, V Rama Krishna Reddy revealed,.“In support of the protest against the allocation of judges from Andhra Pradesh in Telangana courts, around 125 judges submitted their resignation to the President, K Ravinder Reddy. They authorised the President to hand over their resignations to the Acting Chief Justice and the Governor, in case the demands of the Association were not met by the Acting Chief Justice.”.However, the judges of the AP High Court, led by Acting Chief Justice DB Bhosale, saw this as act of indiscipline and decided to take stern action immediately. At around 8:30 pm on the same day, the Acting Chief Justice called for an emergency meeting of the High Court judges and took a decision to suspend two members of the Judges’ Association..Apart from President K Ravinder Reddy, General Secretary V Vara Prasad was also suspended. The former is the IV Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge at the Nampally Criminal Court, while the latter is XIV Additional District Judge in Ranga Reddy District Court..In reaction, the members of the Bar have decided to stand in solidarity with the suspended subordinate judges. Says Reddy,.“Yesterday, the Telangana Advocates Association convened an emergency General Body meeting and condemned the decision taken by the Acting Chief Justice. From today onwards, the Association has resolved to boycott the Acting Chief Justice’s court, till the suspension of the two judges is revoked.”.The resolution dated June 27 (read below) requests Chief Justice of India TS Thakur and the President of India to “recall” Justice Bhosale for being “biased and against the Telangana Judicial Officers”. Moreover, the General Body resolved not to give a farewell to the Acting Chief Justice on his transfer, and requests the Advocate General of the state to boycott his farewell address..But the controversy did not end there. The subsequent arrest of five members of the Advocates Association by the police prompted the Executive Committee to convene an emergency meeting this afternoon. In that meeting, it was resolved that the Association would boycott not just the court of the ACJ, but the entire court on June 29. (read the resolution below).Even as this resolution was passed, the High Court continued to take action against the protesting subordinate judges. Reddy says,.“This evening, we received information that around 48 lower court judges who participated in the procession on Sunday were suspended by the High Court.”.News reports suggested that the Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh wrote a letter to Union Home Minister Kiren Rijiju to expedite the bifurcation of the High Court. However, Vice-Chairman of the AP Bar Council, Thammanna Setty, denied the existence of such a letter..Read the resolution dated June 27:.Read the resolution passed today:.Image taken from here.