Supreme Court Stays Andhra HC Order To Construct State Capital Amaravati In Six Months

A Supreme Court bench of Justice KM Joseph and Justice BV Nagarathna, stayed a recent order by the Andhra Pradesh High Court which directed the state government to finish building the state capital at Amaravati in six months.

The Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) government led by Jaganmohan Reddy had scrapped the previous Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government's plan of having a single capital at Amaravati and passed laws to have three state capitals—at Amaravati, Kurnool and Visakhapatnam, for the purpose of decentralised development.

These laws were challenged in the High Court and there were widespread protests against the government.

Under pressure, the YSRCP government repealed the laws calling for three capitals.

While withdrawing the laws, Reddy said that his government would come up with a better plan for decentralised development and accused the TDP off misleading the people and announcing a financially unsustainable plan for Amaravati.

However, he did not give a timeline as to when the new revised bill would be brought up.

Though the laws were repealed, the case continued in the High Court and it was then that the Court gave the aforementioned ruling.

While passing the stay order, the Supreme Court said that the High Court could not play the role of a ‘town planner’ and added that the proposed timeline was unrealistic.

It also said that it was wrong on the part of the High Court to decide that the legislature and executive had no competence to decide whether the state needs three capitals instead of one.

Advocate Shyam Divan appearing for the 29,000 farmers who pooled land for the project, said that the farmers were promised that by 2020 they would get back part of their land after redevelopment and there is no hope for them now as the state government had stopped all construction activity since 2019.

Appearing for the state government, former Attorney General KK Venugopal said that the government was not backtracking from the assurances made to the farmers.

He said that even in the now scrapped three capitals plan, one of the sites was Amaravati. Further, added that nowhere was it promised that the capital would be at Amaravati only.

Regarding the competence of the legislature to decide the capital(s), he said that ‘town and country planning’ was under the State List.

However, Venugopal’s argument was opposed by Advocate Fali S Nariman who said that in the case of Andhra Pradesh, the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act would apply.

According to the Act, after bifurcation, a committee constituted by the central government, would decide ‘the capital’, said Nariman arguing for a single capital at Amaravati.

The Supreme Court has posted the matter for further hearing on 31 January.