AP High Court gets four new judges, strength reaches 19

Visakhapatnam: Four new judges were appointed to the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday, taking its strength to 19.

According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice, Rao Raghunandan Rao, Battu Devanand, Donadi Ramesh and Ninala Jayasurya are now a part of the top court in Andhra Pradesh.

The AP High court has an approved strength of 37 judges, but it was functioning with only 15 judges until the new names were announced.

In a reply to Rajya Sabha member V Vijayasai Reddy of YSR Congress Party, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in December 2019 had said that 22 posts for judges were lying vacant in the Andhra Pradesh HC. The Union minister said that the process of recruiting judges would be taken up by the Chief Justice of the High Court. However, the minister said that this six-month period does not have to be obligated. (this sentence isn't clear. can we remove it?)

The recruitment or transfer of judicial posts is a continuous process and should be done with the coordination between the government and the judiciary. Appointment of judges had got delayed due to the technical problem of having a consensus with various constitutional bodies, states and central level consultations, the minister had said.

The YSR Congress government led by chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is proposed to shift the AP High Court from Nelapadu near Amaravati to Kurnool of Rayalaseema region to develop latter as the state's judiciary capital. The advocates of Amaravati have been staging protests against the proposed move.