Justice is closer to Rayalaseema

tThe Andhra Pradesh government has accelerated the process of establishing a high court bench in Kurnool and has identified the building to accommodate 15 judges. It can be recalled that the State Assembly passed a unanimous resolution to establish a high court in Kurnore in November 2024.

The government’s decision to establish a bench in Kurnool was welcomed by everyone in the Rayalaseema region, especially from the legal fraternity, especially considering the former YSR Congressional government, which proposed Kurnool as judicial capital and thus failed to keep this promise due to various legal issues.

Dissatisfied with the YSRCP government, the legal fraternity believes its third-level proposal is a grand project of derailing Amaravati, which was achieved by N. Chandrababu Naidu when Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Mohan Reddy, who ruled between 2014 and 2019, which will bring the three approved components between 2014 and 2019. Now, as Rayalaseema’s case accounts for 33% of all cases in Andhra Pradesh High Court, the High Court judges in Kurnur will decentralize the judicial administration.

Unlike transferring the entire High Court from Amaravati to Kurnool, setting up the bench is a relatively easy process. Despite an earlier offering a virtual listening method, Rayalaseema’s lawyers still had to travel for more than 8-9 hours to file mandatory petitions and periodic appeals. Now, petitioners from the four undivided Rayalaseema areas of Kurnool, Kadapa, Anantapur and Chittoor will be able to easily approach the bench instead of heading to Amaravati.

The bench will also achieve other purposes. As there will be cases related to matters of service and labor laws, branches of government departments will soon appear in Kurnool, bringing the administration closer to the people. As the senior lawyer of the High Court explained, both justice and administration will be closer to the people.

The bench setting is expected to stimulate business activities in the area. Kurnool connects to other areas via roads, railways and air. The presence of judges and government officials, as well as visits from senior lawyers from all over the country, will drive the development of the region. The hotel industry in the region is expected to flourish and increase the potential of tourism in Kurnool and its surrounding areas.

Meanwhile, Visakhapatnam advocates have also increased demand for Visakhapatnam benches. Advocates from North Andhra say that this demand has been around since 1993 and they will also increase the bench pitching. They believe that Visakhapatnam is among several educational institutions in the legal community, such as Damodaram Sanjivayya National University of Law, University of Andhra Law School and Gitam Law School, so it is worth mentioning. The Visakhapatnam Bar Association has more than 5,000 advocates, including 1,200 women.

Whether the government sees demand or not, the proposal is unlikely to object to the legal fraternity in other regions. This is because some states have multiple seats in the High Court. In Karnataka, the main seats are in Bengaluru, while other benches can be found in Dharwad and Gulbarga. In Madhya Pradesh, the main seats of the High Court are located in Jabbarpur, while Gwalior and Indore are additional benches.

If the NDA government completes the process of setting up the Kurnool bench, it will find itself in a good position. The last government announced that the High Court and other judiciary would be transferred to Kurnool, which attracted hope but ultimately nothing. This may also be one of the reasons why Rayalasema voters gave the NDA clear tasks in parliamentary elections last year. The Telugu DESAM Party (TDP) alone occupied 42 congress seats in the region, until then, these seats were strongholds of Congress and later YSRCP. Now, TDP and its allies can develop their position in the region in a variety of ways. The establishment of the High Court is a crucial first step towards this goal.