In new affidavit to HC, Centre rejects objections to Andhra Pradesh's three capital law

In an important development on Thursday, the Centre stressed that the three capital law is not a violation of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014. In an additional affidavit filed by the Ministry of Home Affairs in the AP High Court, it dismissed the contention of one of the petitioners that the state could not have three capitals because the aforesaid Act mentioned "a capital" instead of "capitals". MHA undersecretary Lalita Hedaoo pointed out in the affidavit that The General Clauses Act, 1987, mandates that all words in the singular shall include the plural and vice versa.

She also clarified that the Centre had extended financial assistance to the capital city of Andhra Pradesh, irrespective of its location. Hedaoo mentioned that Article 3 of the Constitution only provided for the creation of a new state and not the capital. Moreover, the MHA's affidavit made it clear that the Presidential order regarding the separate High Court for the state with the principal seat at Amaravati cannot be construed as the Union government's endorsement of Amaravati as the capital city. On August 27, an AP HC bench comprising Justice Rakesh Kumar, Justice AV Seshasai, and Justice M Satyanarayana Murthy extended the stay on the three-capital law till September 21.

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What is the three capital law? 

Visakhapatnam, Amaravati, and Kurnool shall become the administrative, legislative, and judicial capital of the state respectively owing to the AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act 2020. This bill divides the state into different zones. Each zone will be governed by a Board that will comprise the CM, a Vice-Chairman, at least one MP, two MLAs, and 4 other members to be nominated by the state government.

There will be a full-time Secretary of the Board who will be an officer of the rank of a Principal Secretary and above. The Andhra Pradesh government shall notify the location of each Board and the departments that could be located in any zone. Simultaneously, the government also repealed the AP Capital Region Development Authority Act, 2014. This legislation was enacted on December 22, 2014, for the development of the state post-bifurcation with a specific area demarcated as the capital. 

SC refuses to interfere

After getting Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan's clearance on July 31, the government was planning to relocate the administrative offices and judicial offices to Visakhapatnam and Kurnool respectively. However, farmers' representatives and other groups filed over 70 petitions in the AP HC against the passage of the AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act 2020 and the AP Capital Region Development Authority Repeal Act, 2020. While the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government challenged the HC's stay order on technical grounds, the apex court declined to interfere in the matter at this stage. 

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