Justice Nimmagadda Venkateswarlu of Andhra Pradesh High Court has directed the registry to place the matter of provision of camp office for Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and accommodation for senior government officials in Visakhapatnam during their visits to hold review meetings on the development of north Andhra region, before the Chief Justice for a decision whether or not to tag it with the pending three capitals cases (petitions that questioned the validity of the A.P. Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act of 2020).
Justice Venkateswarlu was dealing with a writ petition filed by Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi managing trustee Gadde Tirupathi Rao and two others, whose contention is that setting up the CM’s camp office and transit accommodation for the officers is a part of the government’s attempt to shift the capital from Amaravati to the executive capital in Visakhapatnam in violation of the judgment of a Full Bench of the High Court in the ‘three capitals’ case, which was challenged by the State government in the Supreme Court.
The petitioners insisted that the underlying objective was to shift the ‘seat of governance’ to Visakhapatnam, and informed the court that about 4,02,800 square feet of space has already been identified for setting up the said offices.
The State has been arguing that apart from conducting review meetings, the Chief Minister and senior functionaries of the government have to undertake field visits and make night halts. Therefore, providing them transit accommodation should not be construed as shifting the offices from the Secretariat in Amaravati.
In his order, Justice Venkateswarlu restrained the State from shifting or relocating the offices or departments from the Secretariat in Amaravati to Visakhapatnam pursuant to G.O.Rt.No. 2283 till the matter is heard by an appropriate Bench, to avoid unnecessary expenditure thereof and on maintaining offices both in Amaravati and Visakhapatnam, since the State is a trustee of public money.
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy had mooted the idea of three capitals in late 2019 and the government went on to repeal the CRDA Act and bring the Decentralisation Act in 2020 much to the chagrin of thousands of farmers who gave their lands for the development of Amaravati as the greenfield capital city of Andhra Pradesh.
Subsequently, a full Bench of the High Court, in March 2022, ruled that the State had no legislative competence to shift the capital and Amaravati should be developed as the only capital in tune with the A.P. Reorganization Act, 2014. A host of contempt cases followed as the government allegedly violated the writ of mandamus issued by the High Court.
The government eventually challenged the High Court verdict in the Supreme Court, which is yet to hear the matter in its entirety.
Meanwhile, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy openly stated on several occasions that he would shift to Visakhapatnam. The construction of new buildings and renovation of some existing buildings in the port city for the CM’s camp office and other offices is therefore seen as an attempt to shift the capital out of Amaravati.
