Hyderabad HC suspends 8 more Telangana judges

At least 200 judges of Telangana went on mass casual leave for 15 days on Tuesday as the agitation demanding cancellation of the provisional list of judicial officers appointed to the Telangana judiciary took a serious turn. The HC on Monday suspended Telangana judicial officers’ association president K Ravinder Reddy and secretary Vara Prasad on Monday.

Protesting against the action taken by the high court, about 200 judicial officers working across the state made a decision to go on a mass leave for 15 days beginning Tuesday.

About 120 judges had taken out a rally on Sunday in Hyderabad regarding allocation of Andhra Pradesh judges to Telangana courts.

Holding that the state government’s stand on the issue is “unacceptable and intolerable”, Gowda said the creation of a new High Court is in the hands of the Chief Minister and Chief Justice of the common high court for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. “They were only asking to rectify the anomalies”, Telangana advocates joint action committee convenor, A Sriranga Rao, told HT. The association said about 130 officers of Andhra nativity were allotted to Telangana after they exercised the option.

Police arrested scores of lawyers when they tried to barge in the court halls at Nampally Criminal Court Complex.

The Telangana Judges Association has called a strike on Wednesday.

Rao said the tentative allocation of subordinate judicial officers has created discontent among the judicial officers and advocate community belonging to Telangana as many officers of Andhra Pradesh were allocated to Telangana.

Meanwhile, KCR’s daughter and TRS MP K Kavitha told the media in Hyderabad that the Chief Minister was very disheartened by the insensitivity of the Center and confirmed that he was contemplating staging a protest in Delhi.

Even as this resolution was passed, the High Court continued to take action against the protesting subordinate judges.

Further, they sought an appointment with Governor E S L Narasimhan tomorrow to air their demands which include revocation of the suspension order and recall of the provisional allocation list dated May 3, 2016. 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.

Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya is expected to meet Union Home minister Rajnath Singh and Law minister Sadananda Gowda along with A Narasimha Reddy, Chairman, Bar Council of AP and Telangana in Delhi today in this regard, a BJP release said. Among these judicial officers, only 190 are from Telangana.