Tanisha Rana
Published on: September 17, 2022 at 20:20 IST
In an effort to resurrect its proposal to have three capitals, the Andhra Pradesh government has petitioned the Supreme Court to challenge the state high court’s verdict from March 3 proclaiming Amaravati as the only capital of the state.
In the appeal submitted (just now) by State government Advocate Mahfooz Nazki, three main points have been made. These are:
1. Since the impugned legislations were removed, the issue had grown intractable.
Finance Minister Bugganna Rajendranath Reddy introduced the AP Decentralization and Inclusive Development of All Regions Repeal Bill, 2021, in the assembly to repeal the AP Decentralization and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act, 2020, and the AP Capital Region Development Authority Repeal Act, 2020, in order to develop the three capitals of Amaravati (legislative), Visakhapatnam (executive), and Kurnool (judicial).
2. Every State has an inherent right to choose where its capital duties should be performed within the Federal Structure of the Constitution.
3. To assert that a State lacks the authority to choose its capital is to disregard the Constitution’s fundamental structure.
4. Because the judgement prevents the legislature from debating the matter, it violates the notion of the separation of powers.
A division bench led by Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra had ruled that the state legislature lacked the authority to pass any legislation regarding the location of the state’s capital and ordered the state government to refrain from moving any offices from Amaravati, which serves as the current capital city.
The state’s administration was also ordered by the court to reimburse the petitioners Rs. 50,000.
The court further ordered the state government to keep it regularly updated on the execution of its ruling regarding the development of Amaravati, the nation’s capital.
Farmers in Amaravati, the current capital area, opposed the state government’s plan to create three capitals.
The farmers said that the government had contracts with them, promising to create new capital, in exchange for them surrendering their property under the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS).
To guarantee that growth occurred in every area of the state, the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led administration made the decision to establish three capitals in various cities.
It recommended Visakhapatnam as the administrative capital, Kurnool as the judicial capital, and Amaravati as the legislative capital, but it was never implemented since so many petitions were filed with the High Court.
