Larger Bench to hear Hyderabad HC Division

Hyderabad: Few issues of ‘great public importance’ require indepth understanding as they are matters of public importance, a division bench of the Hyderabad High Court said on Thursday and referred the matter of division of High Court to a larger bench.

The bench was dealing with the cases arising out of PIL filed on the formation of a separate high court for AP. Last year, a judgment in this PIL was delivered by a division bench headed by the then Chief Justice. The bench had then declared that the High Court for AP should be situated within the geographical area of Andhra Pradesh only. Now, the Telangana state filed for a review of this judgement.

The division bench opined that questions raised in the review petition require correct interpretation as they are matter of public importance.

A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar opined that the review petition raised two important questions: 1) whether the judgment under review really curtailed the powers of the President as was argued in the review petition. and 2) what is the definition of a “principal seat of a high court”? The phrase - principal seat of the high court - was used extensively in the judgement under question and also in the AP reorganisation Act.

The division bench felt that these two questions need to be correctly interpreted and referred the matter to a larger bench which will be constituted by the Chief Justice.