What better “index” to ascertain whether a state is to be divided or not other than public demand, the Supreme Court said on Monday.
The observation came from a Bench of Chief Justice of India J. S. Khehar and Justice D. Y. Chandrachud while dealing with a bunch of petitions filed by leading Telugu politicians across the political spectrum, challenging the bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh in 2014. They had wanted the apex court to declare the bifurcation an illegal and unconstitutional act.
Though issuing notice to the Centre in 2014, the Supreme Court Bench led by then Chief Justice H. L. Dattu had refused to stay the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of 2014, leading to the bifurcation of the southern State, and formation of the new state, Telangana.
After almost three years in cold storage, the petitions were listed before Chief Justice Khehar on Monday.
A battery of lawyers for the petitioners demanded that therebe a “federal index” for state formation. The Centre could not be allowed to ride roughshod over the federal structure of democracy and divide states into bits.
“What can be a better index than the entire State demanding it (bifurcation),” Chief Justice Khehar questioned.
The lawyers denied that there had been such pressure to bifurcate and said proper consultations were not held between the Centre and erstwhile State authorities.
“When we said ‘State’, we did not mean the State government. We meant the people of the State,” Chief Justice Khehar said.
The lawyers said Telangana lost 140 of its villages due to the bifurcation, and this was not the first time the people had experienced the sufferings of bifurcation and formation of a new state.
“The first time was when Andhra was separated from Madras,” a lawyer submitted.
Additional Solicitor-General P. S. Patwalia, appearing for the Centre, submitted that a committee had held detailed hearings and filed a report that the people living in parts of the present Telangana wanted a new state.
The petitions claimed that the Centre had introduced the Bill when it was rejected by the Andhra Pradesh State Legislature.
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The petitions contended that the bifurcation violated the basic provisions of federalism. The Centre had to first consult the State legislature before passing any law to merge or divide it.
The petitioners in the Supreme Court include Congress MPs Rayapati Sambasiva Rao and Vundavalli Arun Kumar, Telugu Desam MP C.M. Ramesh, YSR Congress MP Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy and BJP leader Raghu Rama Krishna Raju.
