VIJAYAWADA
: The AP high court will start hearing the batch of petitions challenging the trifurcation of the capital. A special bench has been constituted which will be headed by Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, Justice
M Satyanarayana Murthy
and Justice D V S S Somayajulu. The high court will start hearing on Monday.
The state government in December 2019, first proposed to trifurcate the capital based on the report submitted by an expert committee. Subsequently, the state government brought
Capital Region Development Authority
Repeal Act and The
Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act, to establish executive capital at Visakhapatnam and judicial capital at Kurnool and by limiting Amaravati as a legislative capital.
As many as 57 petitions have been filed challenging the twin legislations by the state government for trifurcation of the capital. The farmers, who gave away their lands under land pooling scheme, moved the high court against the move. The farmers argued that shifting of capital from Amaravati is illegal, arbitrary and in violation of rights guaranteed under constitution.
The batch of petitions were partly heard by a full bench of high court headed by former Chief Justice
J K Maheswari
. After his transfer from Andhra Pradesh high court, there was a pause in the hearing of the petitions. Later, the petitions were listed for hearing afresh by the special bench headed by former Chief Justice Arup Kumar Goswami but the issue had come back to square one as he was also transferred.
As a new full bench is constituted again, the hearing of the petitions will resume on Monday.
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