Hyderabad: As many as 25 cases were pending before the Apex Court with regard to the issues of bifurcation of AP and also challenging the validity of the AP Reorganisation Act (APRA) 2014.
Several senior politicians including Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, former chief minister of erstwhile AP, Mr Undavalli Arun Kumar, former MP, Mr K. Raghurama Krishna Raju and Mr C.M. Ramesh, Rajya Sabha member, had challenged the validity of the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 in 2014.
Mr P. Sudhakar Reddy, Congress leader from Telangana and Mr Gidugu Rudra Raju, Congress leader from Andhra Pradesh moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to implement the Act and also to accord special status to Andhra Pradesh as promised by the Prime Minister during the bifurcation of the Act 2014.
The AP State Higher Education Council had also moved the top court challenging the order of the Hyderabad High Court with regard to the distribution of funds of the Council among both states.
While dealing with the case of the Higher Education Council, the Apex Court had ruled that Telangana could not claim absolute right over institutions that were listed under the Tenth Schedule of the Act 2014 and that were located in the capital city of Hyderabad, which it is sharing with Andhra Pradesh.
Mr Krishan Kumar, deputy secretary of the Union Home Ministry, in his affidavit before the Supreme Court with regard to Reorganisation issues stated that Section 75 of the Act 2014 only provided for continuity of services of the institutions listed under Schedule X located in one state to the other not for apportionment of assets and liabilities of such institutions.
He submitted that there was no provision in the Act 2014 specifically regulating the distribution of ownership of Schedule X institutions and hence drawing the inference of ownership of such institutions would not be in adherence with the intent of legislature while enacting the Act 2014.
Mr K. Sravan Kumar, Supreme Court advocate who is dealing with the issues relating to the bifurcation and special status to AP said that the Centre had already filed their counteraffidavits in the petitions relating to the bifurcation vows and “we are expecting that the Apex Court will complete the hearing of all the cases as most of them are pending for the past four years.”
