AP High Court will hear a plea against CJ’s recommendations of judges

Hyderabad, Dec. 22: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday decided to hear a petition filed against the recommendation the Chief Justice to elevate four advocates of the Andhra Pradesh High Court Bar for the post of judges.

Mr Vasireddy Prabhunath, a practising advocate of the High Court, filed the writ contesting that the action of the CJ was illegal. The petitioner contended that the CJ had failed to take into account several eligible legal professionals like him and hence he was aggrieved.

The High Court registry raised certain objections on whether such a petition can be entertained by the High Court when the CJ was made a respondent.

Overruling the objections raised by the registry, a division bench comprising Justice V.V.S. Rao and Justice N.B. Narayana Rao while deciding to hear the petition directed the registry to number the petition.

The bench observed that the objections raised by the registry cannot be sustained in view of four judgements rendered by the Supreme Court in similar cases on an earlier occasion.

Earlier, the petition came up before another division bench but the petitioner objected that the bench cannot hear the petition as one of the advocates whose name was empanelled for the judge is close to a judge who is a member in the bench. The bench referred the case to the CJ with a request to post the petition before another bench. The petitioner levelled charges of favouritism against the CJ in recommending the names of certain advocates to be made judges of the High Court. The CJ had recently sent four names of advocates to New Delhi to be made judges. The bench posted the matter to January third week for admission and regular hearing.