Justice Thottathil Bhaskaran Nair Radhakrishnan was sworn in as the first Chief justice of Telangana High Court on Tuesday. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan administered oath to him at a ceremony held at Raj Bhavan.

Justice Praveen Kumar will take over as the acting Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court later in the day.

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With this, the separate high courts for the two states, created after Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated to carve out Telangana in June 2014, will become functional from Tuesday. The High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad had been serving as the common high court for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana since June 2014.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, judges, lawyers and senior officials were among those present at the oath-taking ceremony of Justice Radhakrishnan on Tuesday. After the event, Narasimhan left for Vijayawada to administer oath to Justice Praveen Kumar.

Justice Radhakrishnan had been serving as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh since July 2017.

The Central government issued a notification last week for bifurcation of the High Court, with the gazette notification saying January 1 would be the appointed day for the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which will start functioning from Amaravati. The High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad will become the High Court for Telangana.

On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to take up for immediate hearing a petition filed by the Andhra Pradesh Lawyers’ Association for postponing the shifting of High Court to Amaravati till the construction of High Court building was completed there.

The apex court will hear the petition on Wednesday. According to the petitioners, the completion of High Court building could take about 10 months.

A group of judicial officers, some employees and advocates at the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad reached Andhra Pradesh capital Amaravati on Monday, with members of the Telangana legal fraternity giving them a warm send-off on the premises of the Hyderabad High Court. Some advocates could be seen turning emotional on the occasion as they recalled the time the advocates of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana spent working together over the years.

According to reports, there are currently over 2.6 lakh cases in the Hyderabad High Court, of which about 60 per cent belong to Andhra Pradesh.

(with agency inputs)