The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Center and farmers and their organizations on a plea by the Andhra Pradesh government against the High Court order declaring Amaravati as the sole capital of the state.
Top court stays HC’s order to develop Amaravati as Andhra capital
Justice K.M. Joseph and Justice B.V. Nagaratna’s bench also stayed the High Court’s direction to the state government to construct and develop Amaravati capital city and capital region within six months. Senior advocate K.K. Venugopal told the hearing that the state government has repealed the law for three different state capitals. The bench said, what kind of directions have been passed by the High Court, can the court be a town planner? The court wants the plan to be completed in two months.
The bench further said how can it bind a sovereign state that it has to develop a particular area.
The High Court had said that the State and the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioners (farmers) as they have taken away over 33,000 acres of fertile land from the farmers, their only source of livelihood.
The top court said it needed to examine the matter in detail and fixed January 31 for further hearing on the petitions filed by the state government, farmers unions and their committees.
“We are inclined to examine the issue… issue notice,” the bench said. The high court had on March 3 observed that the inaction of the APCRDA and the failure of the state government to develop the capital city and capital region is nothing but a deviation from the promise made by the state which ignores the legitimate expectation. It ordered the concerned authorities and the state government to complete infrastructure development such as roads, electricity, drainage and drinking water supply in the Amaravati capital city and the region within a month.
The High Court was hearing petitions by aggrieved farmers of the Amaravati region against the Jagan Mohan Reddy government’s decision to make Visakhapatnam the executive capital, Kurnool the judiciary capital and Amaravati the legislative capital of Andhra Pradesh.
The farmers claimed that the government had entered into an agreement with them to offer their land under a land pooling scheme, promising to develop the new capital.
Also Read – International Indigenous day 2022: Everything You Need To Know
Keep watching our YouTube Channel ‘ News NCR’. Also, please subscribe and follow us on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, and TWITTER.
