The Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday moved the Supreme Court challenging an order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court that had declared Amaravati to be the only capital of the state, reported Live Law.

In its order on March 3, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had directed the state government to develop Amaravati capital city and the capital region within six months as agreed in the terms and conditions under the provisions of Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority Act, 2014 and the Land Pooling Rules, 2015.

It had said that the state legislature does not have the power to divide or shift the capital.

The Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020, had sought to form an executive capital in Visakhapatnam, a legislative capital in Amaravati and a judicial capital in Kurnool.

However, the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government had withdrawn the Bill during the course of the High Court hearing after farmers in Amaravati, who gave over 30,000 acres of land for the new capital, opposed the decision.

Over 55 public interest litigation petitions had been filed in the High Court against the Bill to form three capitals. The recent state government’s plea challenging the High Court order comes as an indication to revive the plans of setting up three capitals, according to Bar and Bench.

In its petition in the Supreme Court, the Andhra Pradesh government has said that the High Court judgement is infructuous since it came after the Bill was withdrawn.

The petition also mentions that given the federal structure of the Constitution, every state has the right to determine where it should carry out its capital functions from.