Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy met Union Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in New Delhi on Saturday and requested him to initiate steps to move the main bench of the state's High Court from Amaravati to Kurnool as decided by the YSRCP government.
During his 50-minute meeting with Prasad, Jagan said that the state government had decided to have three capitals for Andhra Pradesh -- at Amaravati (legislative capital), Visakhapatnam (executive capital) and Kurnool (judicial capital) -- to ensure equal development of all the regions.
The law ministry is yet to give its consent to move the high court to Kurnool.
Jagan also asked the law minister to initiate steps for getting Parliament's nod for the AP Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2019 (known as Disha Act) passed by the state assembly.
The stringent legislation, aimed at ensuring women's safety, mandates judgment to be delivered within 21 days in rape cases. Besides, death penalty is the punishment for such crimes under this Bill. It also provides for increased jail term for sexual offences against minors.
The YSRCP president also took up the issue of the Andhra government's decision to abolish the state legislative council and requested Prasad to move a Bill in Parliament in this regard and get its approval.
Jagan's meeting with Prasad came after he met Union Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the same requests.
In a meeting with Modi which lasted over 100 minutes last week, Jagan discussed various state-related issues inclduing steps for setting up the High Court in Kurnool.
The YSRCP chief also reiterated the demand for Special Category Status (SCS), pointing out that the 15th Finance Commission had clarified that according special status to the state was in the purview of the Centre.
With IANS and PTI inputs