Three capitals row: SC refuses to intervene in Andhra HC stay orders on Amaravati

HYDERABAD: Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to provide relief to the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh and declined to interfere with the stay orders issued by the Amaravati High Court on the three capitals row.
This comes as a drawback to the Reddy government that has obtained the nod of the Governor on the bills to shift the executive capital away to Visakhapatnam from Amaravati expeditiously.

The Apex court directed the Reddy government to plead the High Court, which is hearing the case on Thursday, to expedite the case in which status quo orders were issued on August 4 on shifting of offices away from Amaravati.

Reddy government is proposing to trifurcate the capital in the place of a unified Greenfield capital city at Amaravati as planned and half-built by his predecessor N Chandrababu Naidu, who had during his regime pooled around 34,000 acres from farmers.

Thousands of farmers from 29 villages around Amaravati region who have been protesting for over 250 days against shifting away of the capital city from Amaravati, had moved the High Court challenging the Reddy government’s decision.

The Reddy government wants to set up the executive capital at Visakhapatnam, judicial capital at Kurnool and confine Amaravati as mere legislative capital, as a part of its trifurcation proposal. However, the AP government’s counsel has admitted before the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the state cannot shift the High Court away from Amaravati after being notified by the President of India.

“The Andhra government counsel has conceded before the Supreme Court that Amaravati will now remain the legislative as well as judicial capital,” said Jandhyala Ravi Shankar, a Constitutional expert and counsel for parties opposing the shifting away of capital from Amaravati.

The Apex Court, while dismissing the Reddy government’s petition seeking to vacate of the stay orders issued by the Andhra High Court, has also turned down its request to direct the High Court to complete the hearing on the issue in a fixed timeframe. While asking the Andhra government to make its appeal to the High Court for early disposal of the case, the Supreme Court hoped that the High Court would expedite the case.

The Apex Court’s refusal to intervene also comes on the day hundreds of Amaravati farmers held protects before the Capital Region Development Authority office demanding the Reddy government to release their annuity payments pending for months, making the police to cane and arrest them.