CENTRE REASSURES SEPARATE HIGH COURT FOR TEALNGANA

Amidst vociferous protests by TRS members in the Lok Sabha over the inordinate delay in setting up of a separate High Court for Telangana State, the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre reiterated its commitment to fulfill the assurances made in this regard.
Both Union Minister for Law Sadananda Gowda and Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs M. Venkaiah Naidu repeatedly told the agitated TRS members that the Centre has already begun the process of setting up High Court for Telangana State and awaiting instructions from the Chief Justice of the combined High Court in Hyderabad.
While the assurances from the two Union ministers did not hold water with the protesting TRS members, Venkaiah Naidu at one stage even lost his cool and advised K. Kavitha not to politicize the issue and refrain from dragging the names of persons, who are members of the House. The sharp reaction of Venkaiah Naidu came in the wake of Kavitha accusing the Centre of deliberately delaying the setting of Telangana High Court and that AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu was putting spokes in the matter by exerting pressure on the Union Government.
Venkaiah Naidu reminded the TRS member that BJP was not a regional party but a national party and both Telangana and AP States were equal to the Central government and that there was no question of being partisan to any one State.
Earlier, the Union Minister for Law asserted that the present building of the High Court in Hyderabad belonged to the Telangana State. The High Court for Andhra Pradesh would be temporarily shifted to any place in Hyderabad as per the choice of that State. This arrangement would be temporary till the AP State locates it in its own capital on completion. Once the required place is identified by the AP State, then the High Court would be shifted there, he explained.
The TRS member pointed out that Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had already intimated that the required place for shifting the AP High Court would be provided and wondered where the hitch was in carving out a separate High Court for Telangana. Thereupon, the Union Law Minister pointed out that the issue was now before the combined High Court in Hyderabad and the Centre was awaiting necessary instructions from the Chief Justice on administrative aspects. (NSS)