The recent order issued by the Government of India on the division of assets and liabilities of AP State Council for Higher Education between the two Telugu States turned out to be more of a shocker to Andhra Pradesh government. The Telangana government has reason to feel partly happy that at least its view prevailed on the Centre that assets will be to the State where they are located.
The division of assets and cash balances of APSCHE, one of the 142 Schedule X institutions, assumed significance as it could become the precedent for the rest of the institutions.
Andhra Pradesh which successfully challenged the High Court ruling upholding the ‘unilateral’ ownership staked by Telangana over the assets of APSCHE felt its stand was vindicated when the Supreme Court ruled that both the assets and cash balances be shared between the two States on the basis of population ratio.
The Supreme Court also directed the Centre to intervene and resolve the division of assets of APSCHE if both the States failed to reach an agreement.
AP government sources, however, are perplexed that the Centre’s order is in violation of Supreme Court judgement which rejected Telangana government’s interpretation of the State Reorganisation Act, 2014 that assets would solely go to the respective State based on their location. About 120 Schedule X institutions are located in and around Hyderabad.
“We feel the GoI issued the order without application of mind and oblivious of the SC judgement. We are in the process of seeking legal review of GoI’s order. Either we have to point out the lacunae in the order to the Centre or go back to Supreme Court. A decision will be taken at Chief Minister’s level,” they said. “The GoI apparently went only by the provisions of the Act which were not explicit. That was why the matter landed in the Supreme Court in the first place. The Apex Court had rejected Telangana’s interpretation of Section 75 of the Act that it did not say anything about division of assets of scheduled institutions”, AP sources said.
Telangana government is also a wee bit disappointed that GoI order asked the two States to share the cash balance on the basis of population ratio citing Section 49. Telangana all along represented to the Central Committee that both cash balances and assets of Schedule X institutions (basically premier training institutions) would devolve to the State where they were located. The other State could avail the services by entering into an agreement.
Highly placed Telangana government sources said they were yet to formulate their views but looked for fair resolution of issues. “We are neither interested in taking undue benefits nor passing on undue benefits. We hope the issues will be resolved through negotiations in an atmosphere of trust. SR Act is clear that all assets will devolve on geographical territory principle”. Both Andhra and Telangana sources privately admit that both the States may be heading for a long drawn legal battle and division of assets of schedule X institutions may take years.
