The Supreme Court has stayed the order by the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which was issued in March, directing the state government to develop Amaravati as the capital city within six months.

A bench of justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna said, “courts cannot become a town planner and Chief Engineer”. The Supreme Court found the directions given by the High Court to be violative of the principle of “separation of powers.”

The bench was hearing a petition filed by the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government. The court said it will examine the legal issues related to the case on January 31.

The bench said, “Is there no separation of power in the state of Andhra Pradesh. How can the High Court begin acting as an executive,” referring to the March order of the High Court by which the state was directed to “construct and develop Amaravati capital city and capital region within six months’ time”.

The High Court had also ordered the state government and the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority [AP CRDA] to complete the process of development and infrastructure providing basic amenities such as roads, drinking water, drainage and electricity in the Amaravati capital and region within a month. 

In its order of March 3, the High Court had said that all three civic wings of the state – legislature, executive and judiciary, will have Amaravati as the common capital. 

The state government had moved Supreme Court in September against the High Court order. “To hold that the state does not have the power to decide on its capital is violative of the basic structure of the Constitution,” the state govt had said.

The state government had made it clear that it was committed to decentralization of governance by creating three capitals – the executive capital at Visakhapatnam, the legislative capital at Amravati and the judicial capital at Kurnool. It had stressed that it had all the powers to reorganise its capital.