The High Court registrar general also informed the employees that they may have to consider “other options” to keep the courts functioning in the interest of the public.

Around 8,000 employees of courts and judicial offices across Telangana went on an indefinite strike on Friday in support of the protesting judicial officers and advocates, who are demanding a separate high court for Telangana.

The strike crippled work in the courts even as Acting Chief Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale made an appeal to the employees to withdraw the “illegal” strike in public interest.

The High Court registrar general also informed the employees that they may have to consider “other options” to keep the courts functioning in the interest of the public.

“The acting Chief Justice and companion judges of the high court of judicature at Hyderabad, once again, make an appeal to all judicial officers and judicial employees to withdraw their illegal agitation/strike and start functioning immediately in the larger interest of the litigating public, more particularly in the state of Telangana,” the court stated in a release . “If that does not happen, the High Court, in the larger interest of litigant public in both the states who look to the judiciary with the hope of getting timely justice, may have to consider other options to ensure that the litigant public do not suffer.”

Besides demanding a separate high court for Telangana, the employees are seeking withdrawal of the list of provisional allocation of judicial officers between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, alleging that more than 120 judicial officers, originally from Andhra, had been posted in Telangana.

Judicial Employees Association General Secretary B Lakshma Reddy said the employees in all 10 districts of Telangana held demonstrations. “There is no question of withdrawing the strike until a separate high court for Telangana is established and all judicial officers from Andhra and posted in Telangana are withdrawn,” he said.

At least 200 judicial officers went on leave en masse on June 29 demanding that suspension of 11 judicial officers, including Judicial Officers Association president K Ravinder Reddy, be withdrawn. The HC had suspended them for agitating and violating the code of conduct.

The employees may partially call off the strike on Monday.