Heightening the suspense months before the Telangana State is to be officially born on June 2, the Supreme Court on Friday decided to examine the validity of the Government’s decision to bifurcate the State of Andhra Pradesh.
Issuing notice to the Centre on a set of 18 PIls filed by various individuals, including former Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, the Bench refused to stay the Act at present. It, however, added that a decision on stay could be taken as and when the court would take up the case.
The Bench headed by Justice Hl Dattu felt that an issue of this nature may require hearing by a Constitution Bench. The petitioners had attacked the decision of the President to grant assent to the bifurcation on February 28 despite it being illegal and unconstitutional. According to the petitions, a constitutional question arose in the present case where the Andhra Pradesh Assembly rejected the Centre’s proposal for bifurcation. Under Article 3 of the Constitution, this resulted in an unprecedented situation and it required to be decided whether Centre could still go ahead with the bifurcation contrary to the popular will of the elected people in the State.
Additionally, States in the past have been created on a specific recommendation by a fact-finding Committee. In the case of Telangana, the Justice BN Srikrishna Committee suggested several possibilities of which creation of a separate state was a preferred option. The Committee asked the Centre to consider other possibilities before drawing a conclusion. Such an exercise was never carried out, the petitioners alleged.
The creation of a new State also incurred financial liabilities and distribution of State assets, which failed to be addressed before such a crucial decision could be taken. All petitions unanimously said that the Centre acted out of political motives and hence the decision ought to be scrapped.
The apex court had on several occasions in the past refused to entertain PIls on this issue claiming that the stage was not ripe. The Union Home Ministry has declared June 2 as the Foundation Day of the new State, but will Telangana come into existence only time will tell.