Savvy Thakur
Published on: November 2, 2022 at 20:21 IST
On Tuesday, Chief Justice of India UU Lalit withdrew from hearing the Andhra Pradesh government’s appeal against the High Court of Andhra Pradesh‘s decision that the State Legislature was not competent to pass legislation shifting, bifurcating, or trifurcating the capital and the Heads of Departments of the three wings of the Government.
A bench that consisted of Chief Justice UU Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi heard the appeal against the High Court’s decision.
One of the Senior Counsel who appeared in the case said that CJI Lalit had once given a legal opinion on the question of the State of Andhra Pradesh being split in two as an advocate.
As a result, the issue will be listed before a different combination.
A full bench consisting of Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, Justice M. Satyanarayana Murthy, and Justice DVSS Somayajulu issued the challenged High Court order after directing a number of writ petitions challenging the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development (Repeal) Act 2020 and the Andhra Pradesh Decentralization and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act 2020.
The aforementioned Acts called for the state of Andhra Pradesh to have three capitals.
The Acts aimed to establish Kurnool, Visakhapatnam, and Amaravati as the respective legislative, executive, and judicial capitals.
Last year, in November 2021, the State had revoked or pulled out these Demonstrations.
However, the High Court continued to hear the arguments even after the Acts were withdrawn, concluding that the State Government lacked the authority to enact the two legislations (now withdrawn).
The following is a quote from the Court’s Judgment:
“… State Council needs capability to make any regulation for moving, bifurcating or trifurcating the capital and Heads of Divisions of the three wings of the Public authority including the High Court to any area other than the Capital city informed under Section 3 of the Andhra Pradesh Capital District Advancement Authority Act, 2014 and the land pooled under the Andhra Pradesh Capital City Land Pooling Plan (Arrangement and Execution) Rules, 2015.”
In a nutshell, the Court has determined that the State Legislature lacked the authority to pass the legislation in question—which was later withdrawn—which called for the construction of three capital cities.