AP High Court Directs Advocate General To Approach TSHC For Division Of Staff From Erstwhile APHRC If 'Nothing Fruitful Comes From Telangana AG's Assurances'

In an interesting development, the Andhra Pradesh High Court has directed the Advocate General for the State of Andhra Pradesh to approach the Telangana High Court by way of a petition for the division of sanctioned posts in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh Human Rights Commission.

A division Bench of Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice R. Raghunandan Rao observed that such steps ought to be taken if nothing fruitful came of the assurance given by the Advocate General for Telangana to expedite the proposal sent by the Andhra Pradesh State Human Rights (APSHRC) to Telangana, for the division of the sanctioned posts. It noted:

"The matter has already been lingering for quite a while, which has seriously affected the proper and smooth functioning of the State Human Rights Commission in the state of Andhra Pradesh. We, therefore, direct that in case nothing fruitful comes out of the assurances extended by the learned Advocate General for the State of Telangana, the High Court at Telangana be approached for which, learned Advocate General has no objection and assures the Court that in case nothing fruitful materializes by 10.12.2023, appropriate proceedings would be initiated before the High Court of Telangana by seeking the appropriate relief."

The present PIL was filed in 2021, with a prayer to direct the State Government to set up an office of the APSHRC and provide a mechanism to receive complaints.

During the previous hearings, the Court was able to determine that after the bifurcation of the States, the APSHRC came into being only in March 2021 and was not able to set up a mechanism to receive complaints because the schemes issued under the bifurcation called for a division of staff of the erstwhile APSHRC to fill the posts in the newly set up APSHRC.

It was submitted that in January 2023, the Chief Secretary to the State of Andhra Pradesh had addressed a communication to the Chief Secretary of the State of Telangana requesting a division of staff. However, there was no reply from the State of Telangana and the same has been left pending since, without any follow-ups sent by the AP Government. 

Court noted that in October 2023, the Advocate General to the State of Andhra Pradesh assured it that fresh efforts on communication with the State of Telangana were being made to bring home the urgency of the matter.

On an earlier occasion, the Advocate General for the State of Andhra Pradesh had submitted that the Advocate General for the State of Telangana had already initiated necessary proceedings to begin the process of division of staff. It was also stated that an appropriate petition would be filed before the High Court of the State of Telangana for the division of staff as per the Reorganization Act, 2014 if there was no fruitful outcome.

The Court was also assured that official orders of appointment would be passed within one week.

The matter is posted for hearing on  27th December.

WP(PIL) 124 of 2021

Counsel for petitioner:

Counsel for State of AP: Senior Counsel S. Sriman ( Advocate General)

Counsel for APHRSC: P. Rajasekar

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