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Breaking- Andhra Pradesh Government Decides To Withdraw 'Three Capitals' Law
Sparsh Upadhyay
22 Nov 2021 12:31 PM IST
The Andhra Pradesh Government has decided to withdraw three capitals proposal and has decided to repeal the Laws paving way for three capitals of Andhra Pradesh. As per media reports, the Advocate General for the State of Andhra Pradesh, Subrahmanyam Sriram has informed the High Court about the decision of the Government to take back the contentious laws. This decision of the Andhra...
The Andhra Pradesh Government has decided to withdraw three capitals proposal and has decided to repeal the Laws paving way for three capitals of Andhra Pradesh.
As per media reports, the Advocate General for the State of Andhra Pradesh, Subrahmanyam Sriram has informed the High Court about the decision of the Government to take back the contentious laws.
This decision of the Andhra Pradesh Government would mean that the A. P. Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act 2020 and Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development (Repeal) Act 2020 would be taken back.
The State Cabinet has decided to keep Amaravati as Andhra Pradesh state's capital.
Essentially, these Acts propose the formation of three capitals for the state. The Acts intend to develop Amaravati, Visakhapatnam, and Kurnool as the legislative, executive and judicial capitals respectively.
The Acts were challenged in the High Court by farmers and the matter is presently being heard before the High Court.
Read more about the court hearing here: Andhra Pradesh High Court Starts Hearing Challenge To 'Three-Capitals' Law
Before the Court, Senior Advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the farmers, argued that around 33,000 families of Amravati had given up their land for capital development, and now, they have no sustainable means of livelihood.
Significantly, he had also argued that the power to make/decide upon the capital is of parliament under Article 3 and 4 of the Constitution as fixing of new capital is constituent power of the parliament under these articles.
Referring to the 2014 Act, Senior Advocate Divan contended that the Parliament intended to make one capital for the State [Act uses the term 'a capital'], however, he said that this necessarily doesn't mean only one capital, but the Act of 2014 intended to create a capital city for the state of Andhra Pradesh.
Provisions in the 2014 Act regarding the Capital of Andhra Pradesh.
It may be noted that Section 5 (2) of the 2014 Act says that after the expiry of 10 years, Hyderabad shall be the capital of the State of Telangana and there shall be a new capital for the State of Andhra Pradesh.
Significantly, Section 6 of the 2014 Act says that the Central Government shall constitute an expert committee to study various alternatives regarding the new capital for the successor State of Andhra Pradesh and make appropriate recommendations.
Further, Section 94 (3) of the Act says that the Central Government shall provide special financial support for the creation of essential facilities in the new capital of the successor State of Andhra Pradesh including the Raj Bhawan, High Court, Government Secretariat, Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council, and such other essential infrastructure.
It also says that the Central Government shall facilitate the creation of new capital for the successor State of Andhra Pradesh, if considered necessary, by denotifying degraded forest land.
"The 2020 acts are contradictory and are against the Reorganisation act of 2014 because you could take only one-time decision over the State Capital but you suddenly come up with 2020 act," said Senior Advocate Divan.
He also contended that after the 2019 elections, the State Government changed its plan regarding the capital of the State, however, he did admit that the Act of 2014 doesn't mention any specific location as the State Capital, however, he added that a place which consists of the three wings (Executive, Judicial and Legislature), can only be called as the capital, meaning thereby, that one place could be State Capital.
