The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday further extended the status quo on the two new laws, that enable the trifurcation of the state's capital, till October 5. A division bench of the state's High Court, comprising Chief Justice JK Maheshwari and Justices AV Sesha Sai and M Satyanarayana Murthy, was hearing a batch of interlocutory applications filed by the Rajadhani Rythu Parirakshana Samiti and others. The bench has extended the status quo on the laws and posted the case to October 5 for the further hearing.
The extension of status quo halts the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy governments' plans of expediting the process for shifting the state''s Executive Capital to Visakhapatnam.
The state government notified the AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All regions Act 2020 and AP Capital Region Development Authority (Repeal) 2020 Act. The government was looking to set up executive capital in Visakhapatnam, a Legislative capital at Amaravati and a Judicial capital in Kurnool of Rayalaseema.
Earlier, in the last week of August, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain the plea by the Andhra government which challenged the High Court's earlier orders in the matter.
The HC had granted a week's time to the state Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney to file a counter affidavit in a contempt case related to the issue. A contempt petition had been filed in the court alleging that the state government was going ahead with the construction of a guesthouse at Kapuluppada village near Visakhapatnam.
As the guesthouse construction was also a part of the move to locate the Executive Capital in Visakhapatnam, the petitioner had contended that it amounted to a violation of the status quo ordered by the High Court.
The bench on August 27 directed the state Chief Secretary to file a counter to this by September 10 but the government on Monday sought more time for this.
Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh government filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court against the High Court's interim orders which stayed probe in an Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) case pertaining to the alleged scam in Amaravati land dealings and also the gag order on the media from reporting on the contents of the FIR.