Report No. 14

36. The High Court.-

The High Court of the erstwhile State of Andhra started functioning from the 5th July, 1954, that is, about ten months after the State was formed. A large volume of work approximately half the pending file was transferred to the High Court from the Madras High Court. The High Court started working with only three judges. It is learnt that for a considerable time due to inadequacy of judges, largely proceedings capable of being heard by single judges were dealt with. The Government, when moved by the High Court to increase the number of judges, finding the number of second appeals, revisions and the like disposed of to be satisfactory, proceeded to assess the requirement of judges on the basis of the quantity of the work done by single judges in these matters.

This was an obviously erroneous approach. Delays in the appointment of judges took place and resulted in accumulation of arrears. Only three judges worked from.-7-1954 to.-11-1954 when two more judges were appointed. On 21-2-1955 the number of judges was increased to six and on.-3-1955 to eight. Seven judges worked from.-9-1955 to.-11-1956. The addition of five judges of the erstwhile Hyderabad High Court brought the number of judges to twelve. On 19-12-1956 one more judge was appointed. Recently by the appointment of one permanent judge and three additional judges for a period of two years the number of the High Court judges has risen to sixteen.

37. The following table (Table No. 15) shows the pendency of different categories of proceedings in the High Court on.-1-1957 (including those from the Telangana region).

Table No. 15

Category of Proceeding	Number pending on.-1-1957
First Appeals	3379
Second Appeals	3456
Appeals against orders	1531
Letters Patent Appeals	130
Special Tribunal Appeals	93
Original Side Appeals	4
Writ Appeals	94
Special Appeals	3
Writs including Tax Revision Cases	1903
Civil Revision Petitions	3577
Civil References	62
Petitions for leave to appeal to Supreme Court	46
Original Petitions	17
Original Suits	1
Civil Miscellaneous Petitions	7593
Civil Miscellaneous Second Appeals	332
Criminal Appeals	492
Criminal Revision Petitions	829
Referred trials (Confirmation Cases)	16
Reference (other than those under section 307 Cr. P. C.)	16
Miscellaneous	145

38. As already stated, approximately 1350 first appeals will have to be transferred to the District Judges if our recommendations are accepted. This should give substantial relief to the High Court. Though we do not have the particulars relating to disposals in 1957, yet we are sure that as an increased number of judges have worked throughout the year, there will have resulted a fall in the number of pending matters. There is however need for continuous vigilance, as the accompanying Table (No. 16) shows that certain categories of proceedings have been pending for over a decade. Although the criminal work is not greatly in arrears there is room for improvement in that field also. It is therefore necessary that steps be taken for the appointment of more additional judges to bring the file under control.

39. Combination of civil and criminal jurisdiction.-

The judiciary of the State is completely separated from the executive. In the Telangana region, as already stated, the same set of judicial officers exercise both civil and criminal powers, perhaps, due to the small volume of litigation. This method seems to be working fairly satisfactorily though it may occasionally result in officers not being able to dispose of cases de die in diem. By judicious posting of cases, we think, this difficulty can be overcome. But if the jurisdiction of Munsifs is raised and the number of civil suits on their files increases, this system of conferring civil and criminal jurisdiction on the same officer may not continue to work satisfactorily. The criminal work in the courts of Session and Magistrates does appear however to be under control; but there is room for greater efficiency in the Magistrates' Courts.

40. Court fee on writ applications.-

In this State, a court fee of Rs. 100 is payable on every application presented to the High Court under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India other than an application for the issue of a writ of Habeas Corpus. It appears to us that the levy of such a high court fee on these applications would amount in many cases to a deprivation of the fundamental rights of the poorer classes of citizens. We may mention in this connection that even in the Supreme Court, the fee levied on an Article 32 petition is only Rs. 10.

41. Touting.-

A number of witnesses stated that the evil of touting was prevalent particularly in certain parts of the Andhra region. We were told that these "village barristers" employ advocates of their choice to whom they direct the litigants and that these touts "swallow" a considerable portion of the fee payable to the advocates. A very senior member of the Bar stated in unambiguous words that, "there are some people who are engaged as unofficial solicitors. They take money from clients". We trust that the legal profession in Andhra Pradesh will take strong measures to combat this evil.

Table No. 16

Nature of Proceeding	Year of Institutions
	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956
Regular First Appeals	..	..	..	1	6	16	76	454	559	512	524	550
Regular Second Appeals	15	7	9	7	3	11	23	57	155	604	879	792
Appeals against Orders	..	..	..	1	1	11	23	32	167	339	384	402
Appeals against Appellate Orders	..	..	..	..	..	1	3	14	34	56	111	113
Letters Patent Appeals	..	..	..	..	1	..	2	4	4	28	21	70
Special Tribunal Appeals	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	10	30	33	20
Original Side Appeals	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	11	6
Writ Appeals	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	3	2	7	82
Writs	..	..	..	..	..	7	25	14	23	33	541	994
Special Appeals	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	3
Civil Revision Petitions	6	..	..	3	5	5	30	62	59	350	1047	1173
Tax Revision Petitions	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	1	..	8	60
Referred Cases	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	1	2	..	23
Leave to Appeal to Supreme Court	..	..	..	..	..	1	..	..	5	1	4	34
Original Petitions	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	11	6
Civil Suits	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	1	..	..
Civil Miscellaneous Petitions	..	..	..	..	3	13	51	93	190	981	1884	4378
Criminal Appeals	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	32	281
Criminal Revisions	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	48	1	66	425
Referred Trials	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	11
References under section 307 Cr.P.C.	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..
Other references	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	2	14
Miscellaneous	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	4	..	2	99

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