The Supreme Court on Wednesday admitted a plea filed by the president of the Federal Party of India challenging the formation of Telangana and Seemandhra States by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh.
A Bench of Justices H.L. Dattu and S.A. Bobde issued notice to the Centre on the petition by senior advocate P.R. Krishnan questioning the powers of Parliament to enact the law.
Refusing to stay the bifurcation process, the Bench, which has already referred a batch of pleas for hearing by a Constitution bench, directed that the plea be tagged with those petitions.
The petitioner said, “Parliament does not have power either under Article 3 or any other provision of the Constitution to divide a State except by an appropriate amendment of the Constitution and with the unanimous consent of the people of the affected State or States.”
‘Against federal structure’
The petition said the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, was unconstitutional and against the federal structure of the country.
“When the Andhra Pradesh Assembly has rejected the Bill, the Central government and the President have succeeded in passing the same in Parliament. The entire Andhra Pradesh is agitating against bifurcation. Ignoring the opposition, the Telangana Bill has been passed. On a discerning and unbiased observation, one finds that the track record of the Union government and its constitutional handling of the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh are highly disquieting,” the petition said.
‘Decline and fall’
The petitioner said that the separation of Andhra Pradesh would be the beginning of the decline and subsequent fall of the Indian Union.
The petition added that the government’s move had hurt the pride of people from Andhra. “Though separation is one of the solutions it is not the only solution. It is deplorable that no alternative dispute resolution is attempted,” Mr. Krishnan said.
