HYDERABAD: In the light of division of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh High Court into two high courts on Jan 1, 2019, a division bench of the Telangana High Court directed the AP High Court Employees’ Mutually Aided Cooperative Housing Society Limited, Hyderabad, to file an affidavit by furnishing complete list of its members and to specify who were presently the employees of AP High Court and Telangana High Court. The bench also directed the society to inform as to how many of its members are alive and how many of them have retired.
The bench was passing this order in a contempt case filed by the society, represented by its present secretary P Vinod Kumar, seeking to punish the authorities concerned for non-compliance and wilful disobedience of earlier order of the court.
According to the petitioner society, in December 2018 the Court had ordered the State government to register the land in the name of the society and that the allotment of individual plots to the members belonging to both AP and Telangana should be completed within six months. In 2010, the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh government had allotted 39 acres to the society at Kancha Gachibowli in Serilingampally mandal in Ranga Reddy district. As the land was not registered in the name of society the present contempt case has been filed.
After hearing the case and perusing the material on record, the bench found that the society represents the employees of erstwhile AP High Court and subsequently the high court was split into two and have become separate entities from Jan 1, 2019. The bench, therefore, directed the petitioner society to give complete list of its members. The bench posted the matter to Feb 11 for further hearing.