Hyderabad: A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the Constitutional validity of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act that led to creation of the new state of Telangana.
A bench of justices comprising B.S. Chauhan and A.K. Sikri on Monday refused urgent hearing of the PIL, filed by V.R. Krishna Iyer Free Legal Aid Committee and ordered that it be tagged along with other similar petitions on the issue. Advocate G. Venkatesh Rao, appearing for the committee, sought urgent hearing of the PIL by citing media reports that a “war room” is being created to drive out persons, who do not hail from Telangana, from Hyderabad. “Let it be tagged with other similar petitions,” the bench said.
A political decision was implemented days before the tenure of the 15th Lok Sabha came to an end with an aim to derive “political and electoral gains”, the plea said.
It said the APR Act was passed by both Houses of Parliament “unconstitutionally and undemocratically”, at the behest of the ruling Congress, through malafide political maneuvers and therefore by no stretch of imagination can it be considered the “will” of the people of the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh,” it said.
The PIL has named the Ministry of Home Affairs, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Secretary Generals of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and the Cabinet Secretary as respondents.
The PIL said the former ruling dispensation ignored the decision of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and the “in-depth analysis and weighty recommendations of the “Justice Srikrishna Committee Report 2010”.
“The Bill was introduced at the behest of a political party called Telangana Rashtra Samiti whose representation in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly was just 10 MLAs in an Assembly having a strength of 294 Members. It had just 3.99 per cent vote share in the 2009 Assembly elections,” it said.
“Even in the 2009 General Elections, the TRS had won just two seats out of 42 and as such had only two MPs,” it said.
The petition said, “The enactment violates the fundamental rights of the people of India and united Andhra Pradesh, and is detrimental to the principle of
“Federalism”, which is a “basic feature” of the Constitution.
“The enactment violates Article 14 (Equality before Law and Equal protection of Laws) as it is arbitrary and unreasonable. It even fails to provide any “Objects & Reasons” to the Act, and as such has invited the grave allegations of being malafide and having oblique motives,” it said.
The Act also violates Article 19 of the Constitution which guarantees to all citizens the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression.
