CJI Lalit Recuses Himself From Hearing Appeal Against HC's Verdict On Three Capital Cities In Andhra Pradesh

Chief Justice UU Lalit on Tuesday recused himself from hearing an appeal of the Andhra Pradesh government against a verdict of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh which held that the State Legislature was not competent to bring out legislations shifting, bifurcating or trifurcating the capital and Heads of Departments of the three wings of the Government. 

The appeal against the decision of the High Court was listed before a bench comprising Chief Justice UU Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi.

One Senior Counsel appearing in the matter submitted that, CJI Lalit, as an advocate, had once given a legal opinion on the issue of bifurcation of the State of Andhra Pradesh.

The matter will accordingly be listed before a different combination. 

The High Court order which was being challenged was passed by a full bench comprising Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, Justice M. Satyanarayana Murthy and Justice D. V. S. S. Somayajulu who had issued directions in a clutch of writ petitions filed before it challenging the A. P. Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act 2020 and Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development (Repeal) Act 2020. The said Acts proposed the formation of three capitals for the State of Andhra Pradesh. The Acts intended to develop Amaravati, Visakhapatnam, and Kurnool as the legislative, executive and judicial capitals respectively. Last year, in November 2021, the State had repealed/withdrew these Acts. 

However, even after the withdrawal of the Acts, the High Court had continued to hear the pleas and eventually held that the State Government had no competence to come up with the 2 legislations (now withdrawn). The Court, in its Judgment, remarked thus:

"…State Legislature lacks competence to make any legislation for shifting, bifurcating or trifurcating the capital and Heads of Departments of the three wings of the Government including the High Court to any area other than the Capital city notified under Section3 of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority Act, 2014 and the land pooled under the Andhra Pradesh Capital City Land Pooling Scheme (Formation and Implementation) Rules, 2015."

In essence, the Court has held that the State Legislature was not competent to bring out with the legislations in question (which were later on withdrawn) proposing to construct three capital cities.