Sources told South First the government is likely to appoint M Lakshminarayana, a senior advocate from Srikakulam as the Public Prosecutor.
Published Jul 29, 2024 | 6:00 PM ⚊ Updated Jul 29, 2024 | 6:00 PM
Andhra Pradesh High Court. (Supplied)
The functioning of the Andhra Pradesh High Court has been crippled owing to the non-appointment of government pleaders and public prosecutors even one and half months after the formation of the TDP-led NDA government in the state.
The high court does not have a full complement of 40 Government Pleaders (GPs) and 80 Assistant Government Pleaders (AGPs).
There are only 20 GPs against the full strength of 40 GPs, and all the posts of the 80 AGPs are lying vacant.
Though the appointment of the public prosecutor is more or less over, two additional public prosecutors and about five assistant public prosecutor posts are yet to be filled.
The state government has so far filled the post of Advocate General by appointing Dammalapati Srinivas, and I Sambasiva Pratap as the additional advocate general.
Sources told South First that the government is likely to appoint M Lakshminarayana, a senior advocate from Srikakulam as the Public Prosecutor.
The High Court is understood to have cleared his name after the receipt of a panel of names from the state government. A GO is likely to be issued any time now.
In the absence of the full strength of the GPs and AGPs, the work is being affected very badly in the high court.
The cases that come up at various benches of the high court, which require the government to be heard, are being adjourned every day. As a result, court hours end prematurely by the afternoon itself these days.
Realising the urgent need for the appointment of GPs and AGPs, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is understood to be very keen on filling them early without losing sight of the need to give better representation to the BCs and Tribals.
The chief minister is understood to have given instructions to fill at least half of the posts of the GPs with BCs and Scheduled Tribes.
At present, Advocate General Dammalapati Srinivas is identifying advocates from among the BCs and tribes for appointment as GPs which might take some time as those who belong to these two caste groups should be qualified for the posts in all other respects also.
It is expected that once the high court has full strength of the GPs, AGPs, PP, additional PPs and assistant PPs, the rate of disposal of cases will pick up.
Meanwhile, the high court, whose sanctioned strength of judges is 37, is staring at seven vacancies and by the end of August, two more judges will retire, taking the total number of vacancies to nine.
In May, the high court collegium recommended nine names to fill the current and future vacancies and sent the list which is yet to be cleared by the Supreme Court collegium.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil)
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