Ram Nath Kovind, the President of India, issued an order on Wednesday, stating, Andhra Pradesh will have a new High Court (HC) from the 1st of January, 2019.
After the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh on the 2nd of June, 2014, the State of Telangana and the State of Andhra Pradesh had a common HC at Hyderabad.
The gazette notification, released yesterday by the Government of India, states, “The President hereby constitutes a separate High Court for the State of Andhra Pradesh, namely, the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, from the 1st day of January, 2019 with the principal seat of such High Court at Amaravati in the state of Andhra Pradesh and the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad shall become the High Court for the State of Telangana.”
The Government of India and the Ministry of Law and Justice passed the order under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, which has a provision for a separate High Court for the State. The HC of Andhra Pradesh will be situated in Amaravati, the capital of Andhra Pradesh.
A bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan, on Monday, ordered the State authority to issue a notification regarding the bifurcation of the HC. The bench further added, “We expect such a notification to be issued by January 1, 2019, so that the two High Courts start functioning separately and High Court of Andhra Pradesh also starts functioning in the new building at the earliest.”
Justice Ramesh Ranganathan, currently the Chief Justice (CJ) of the Uttarakhand HC, will be the CJ of the Andhra Pradesh HC. Apart from Ramesh Ranganathan, there will be 15 other Judges. Some of these Judges will include Justice Chagari Praveen Kumar, Justice Seresa Venkatanarayana Bhatti, Justice Akula Venkata Sesha Sai, Justice Mandhata Seetharam Murti and Justice Dama Seshadri Naidu.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court will be the 25th High Court in India.
