Hyderabad, December 19: In the backdrop of an assurance given by the Law Minister, Mr E Pratap Reddy, on the floor of the Assembly about setting up of High Court Benches in the State, Mr B Purushothama Reddy, Chairman, Legal and Human Rights Department, APCC, has called upon all advocates, who were on strike for the last over two-and-a-half months in Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, to call off their strike and attend to the courts forthwith.
In a press release here, Mr Reddy has stated that the Chairman of the Legislative Council, Dr A Chakrapani, who was also a senior advocate of the High Court, submitted a representation to the President of India, Ms Pratibha Patil, in January, 2008, requesting her to use her good offices and secure High Court Benches in the State as well as setting up of one Supreme Court regional bench in Hyderabad. He also stated that if there a need arises, Dr Chakrapani would also be urged to mediate between the advocates and the State government in solving the problem.
Mr Reddy further stated that the matter was already under consideration at the highest level and there was no need for continuing the agitation. “As a matter of fact, we were also supporting the demand for setting up of High Court Benches in the State since there were High Court benches even in smaller states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka”.
Reminding that almost all the political parties had supported the demand and the issue has been pending over the last one-and-a-half decades, Mr Reddy said that “we have to give some breathing time to the present government to take an appropriate decision on this issue”.
——–NSS