SC refuses to stay AP HC’s order on Amaravati; setback for YS Jagan’s govt

In a blow for the YSRCP-led state government in Andhra Pradesh, the Supreme Court has refused to grant the state’s motion to postpone a March last year high court ruling ordering the YSRCP government to construct Amaravati as the state’s capital within six months.

The court will consider the plea, along with other petitions related to the subject on July 11, Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagaratna said.

In the state assembly, chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy declared that he will relocate to Visakhapatnam and work from the coastal city beginning in July.

Justice Joseph will retire on June 16, and the case will be heard by a new bench in July.

After the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh’s bifurcation into Telangana and a new Andhra Pradesh (Seemandhra) in 2014, both were supposed to share Hyderabad as their capital for ten years.

But, then AP chief minister Chandrababu Naidu declared plans to establish a world-class greenfield capital in Amaravati and all the state bureaucracy was moved from Hyderabad to under plan Amaravati. Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the seminal event.

Hundreds of acres of land were purchased, and large plans were put up for the construction of the new capital, despite the fact that funding proved to be a major obstacle.

Later, in May 2019, when YSRCP won the Assembly elections and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy became the chief minister, he alleged that the Naidu-led previous government committed a massive land purchase fraud, abandoned plans for a new capital in Amaravati, and abolished the AP Capital Area Development Authority (AP-CRDA).

Jagan announced decentralisation in new legislation, saying the state will have three capitals: a judicial capital in Kurnool, a legislative capital in Amaravati, and an executive capital in Vizag.

But this resulted in legal complications. In November, the government withdrew its decentralisation bill and cancelled the AP-CRDA.

In March 2022, the Andhra Pradesh High Court ruled in favour of Amaravati farmers, ordering that the capital be erected at Amaravati according to the master plan outlined in the Capital Area Development Authority Act within six months. The state government filed a petition with the Supreme Court.

This was in reaction to various applications filed by farmers challenging the repeal of the CRDA Act, which had been approved by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)’s administration in order to create a magnificent capital at Amaravati, for which they had provided the land.

A high court division bench led by Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra issued its final decision on a slew of petitions contesting the Decentralisation Act and the repeal of the Andhra Pradesh CRDA Act.

The state administration then repealed the AP Decentralisation Act and the CRDA Repeal Act in November.

The case was resumed by the high court when several petitioners stated that there were additional unsolved concerns related to the CRDA legislation, such as the transfer of developer plots to land owners who had handed away their farm lands, development or basic infrastructure, and land mortgaging in banks.