AMARAVATI: A carpet of flowers was laid by women and farmers here on Monday to accord a send-off to outgoing Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari, who has been transferred to Sikkim.
Holding the national flag, people lined up in large numbers from the High Court complex at Nelapadu through the Seed Access Road to give the Chief Justice a farewell.
They raised slogans hailing Justice Maheshwari, who endeared himself to the people through judgements and orders, notably on the state capital issue.
A large number of farmers and their families, who had given up over 33,000 acres of their fertile land for building the state capital city Amaravati, had opposed the government's decision to trifurcate the capital.
The high court has ordered status quo on two new laws enabling the formation of three capital cities -- executive in Visakhapatnam, legislative in Amaravati and judicial capital in Kurnool.
Earlier, other judges and the high court staff felicitated Justice Maheshwari.
"People come and go but we have to uphold the sanctity of the institutions," Justice Maheshwari said on the occasion.
"We should always strive to enhance the prestige of the judiciary," he said, recalling that he rose to this position from a humble beginnning.
He was transferred in the backdrop of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy writing to the Chief Justice of India S A Bobde alleging that the state high court was being used to "destabilise and topple" his democratically elected government.