A key development has taken place in the establishment of a permanent High Court bench in Kurnool. High Court Registrar Srinivasa Sivaram wrote a letter to Kurnool District Collector Ranjit Basha on the 29th of this month, requesting him to submit complete details regarding adequate infrastructure facilities available for 15 judges.
The facilities include court complex, court rooms, staff rooms, accommodation for lawyers, residence and accommodation facilities for judges and court staff should be placed before him within one day so as to place these details before the High Court Judges Committee.
Responding immediately to this letter, Kurnool Collector Ranjit Basha directed the Superintendent Engineer of Roads and Buildings Department, Municipal Corporation Commissioner and RDO to examine whether there are government/private buildings with the facilities requested by the High Court and submit a report.
He also asked the Kurnool RDO that the vacant government lands should be identified. The alliance government had promised the people as part of the Prajagalam program before the elections that a High Court bench would be set up in Kurnool. After the government was formed, the state cabinet passed a resolution for the establishment of the bench.
After that, a resolution was passed in the Legislative Assembly. It is known that the then State Law Secretary had written a letter to the Registrar General of the High Court on October 28 last year, requesting that the matter be placed before the competent authority (High Court judges-full court) to express their views on the proposal to set up a High Court bench in Kurnool.
Chief Justice Justice Dheeraj Singh Thakur formed a committee with senior judges of the High Court on the establishment of a bench in Kurnool. Justice Ravinath Tilhari, Justice R. Raghunandan Rao, Justice N. Jayasuriya, and Justice B. Krishnamohan were in the committee.
The officials have identified a new building of the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) in Dinnedevarapadu, on the outskirts of Kurnool city, was constructed by the officials last year at a cost of about Rs. 25 crores. It has four spacious halls and separate rooms available for court needs. The guest house attached to this building and its four suites can be used. However, there are not enough facilities here for 15 judges.
In addition, the officials inspected 50 vacant rooms in the premises of a private engineering college in B.Thandrapadu and the cluster university administration building in the premises of Silver Jubilee College. A spacious school building is available under the Bala Sai Baba Trust in Munagalapadu. It is reported that the officials have sent preliminary proposals in relation to all these.
