The Supreme Court stayed the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s order in March directing the state government to develop Amaravati as the capital within six months. Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna said, “Courts cannot become town planner and chief engineer.” The Supreme Court observed that the directions issued by the High Court had transgressed the principle of “separation of powers”.
The bench was hearing an appeal filed by the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government. The court said it will examine the legal issues related to the matter on January 31. The court said, “There is no separation of powers in the state of Andhra Pradesh. How can the high court start acting as an executive authority,” referring to the March 3 order directing the state to “build and develop the capital Amaravati within six months”.
The Supreme Court further ordered the state government and the Andhra Pradesh Capital Development Authority to complete the process of development and infrastructure in the capital city and Amaravati region providing basic amenities like roads, drinking water, sewerage, electricity within one month. . The state government had in September moved the Supreme Court against a high court order that halted its ambitious plan of three capital cities for the state. “It is a violation of the basic structure of the constitution to say that the state has no power to decide its capital,” the state said in its appeal filed through advocate Mahfooz A Nazki.
The state government has made it clear that it is committed to decentralization of administration by creating three capitals – the executive capital in Visakhapatnam, the legislative capital in Amaravati and the judicial capital in Kurnool. It emphasized that it has all the powers to reorganize its capital.
In its 307-page order on March 3, the apex court said all the three civic wings of the state — legislative, executive and judiciary — will have Amaravati as their common capital. This was followed by a series of requests from landowners to give up their agricultural land in the Land Pooling Program for the development of the capital city and capital region.
The petitioner landowners challenged the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority Repeal Act, 2020 and the Andhra Pradesh Decentralization and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act, 2020 in the Supreme Court, by which the state sought to change Amaravati as the state capital. . This law was repealed by the state during the hearing and the same was informed to the high court. The state argued that once the HC was dismissed, it could not continue.
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