The Supreme Court ruled on Saturday that Telangana cannot claim “absolute” right over institutions merely because they are located in its capital city of Hyderabad, which is being shared by Andhra Pradesh as well. The ruling sets aside a high court verdict, which had upheld the freezing of the bank accounts of the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education on the ground that its assets now belonged to the Telangana State Council of Higher Education because it was located in Hyderabad, PTI reported.

A bench of justices V Gopala Gowda and Arun Mishra said Telangana claiming complete ownership of APSC funds was in violation of Section 47 of the Reorganisation Act, 2014, which stipulates proportional allocation of assets and liabilities between the states. “It is natural that when an existing state is bifurcated to form two new states, there must be an equitable bifurcation of the assets and liabilities…to ensure welfare of the public residing within these territories,” it said.

In May 2015, the APSC had moved the apex court against the high court judgment, which had held that TSC would be allowed to operate APSC’s bank accounts because it was now located in Telangana. Deeming the plea not “sustainable”, the court had dismissed it. The petition had said that the Telangana government had created TSC in August, 2014, “to discharge the same functions for the state as was done by the APSC for Andhra Pradesh”.