A total of eleven judges — nine on Tuesday and two on Monday — were suspended from the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad on disciplinary grounds for participating in a protest, following which 200 judges have declared they will go on mass leave for 15 days and are demanding a revocation of the suspension of the judges.
A lawyer named Tirumal Rao was also hospitalised during the protest when he sustained burns due to attempted self-immolation, according to a report by The New Indian Express.
He reportedly doused himself in kerosene and set himself ablaze at the main corridor of the city civil court, Nampally, after hearing about the suspension of Telangana Judges Association president K Ravinder Reddy and secretary V Vara Prasad.
The judges were suspended on disciplinary grounds in response to a protest organised by judges and lawyers against non-bifurcation of the high court and the provisional allocation of judicial officers between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Under the banner of Telangana Judges Association, about 125 judicial officers of Telangana offered their resignations to the Telangana Judges Association president on Sunday to protest against the allocation of judicial officers hailing from the current Andhra Pradesh to Telangana courts.
"We have already issued a strike notice on various issues from July 1," All India Judicial Employees Association's general secretary B Lakshma Reddy was quoted as saying by PTI.
The judges, who began protesting on June 6, had on Sunday authorised the Telangana Judges Association president to hand over the resignations to the governor if their demands were not met in a timely manner.
"We have been seeking preparation of a fresh list of allocation between the two states as per the native district declared by the judicial officers at the time of entry into service," T Sriranga Rao, Telangana Advocates JAC co-convener had said, adding that the court had ignored their own guidelines framed in February this year.
