In April’23, YS Jagan stated during an Investors meet in New Delhi that he intended to shift the capital of Andhra Pradesh from Amaravathi to Visakhapatnam in September of the same year. Despite the ongoing Amaravathi issue in court, YS Jagan boldly made this announcement.
However, his hopes in the Amaravati case were shattered by today’s verdict from the Supreme Court. Once again, Jagan’s government faced a significant setback in the Supreme Court as it declined to stay the Andhra Pradesh High Court verdict on Amaravati.
Additionally, the Supreme Court rejected the state government’s requests for an urgent investigation. The hearing of petitions challenging Amaravati as the capital was postponed to December of this year. The Supreme Court bench explicitly stated that no investigation could take place before that date.
Former Attorney General KK Venu Gopal, representing the AP government, urgently sought an investigation into the case. A bench comprising of Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Bela M Trivedi ruled out the possibility of an urgent investigation.
They clarified that an emergency hearing could not be conducted as the Constitutional Benches were occupied from August to November. Senior advocate KK Venugopal requested a three-hour hearing to present arguments on the Amaravati case. The bench inquired whether notices had been sent to all respondents.
Lawyers representing Amaravati farmers revealed that two of the defendants had passed away. The AP government requested the removal of the deceased from the list of respondents. It was disclosed that once the deceased were excluded, the remaining respondents had received notices.
However, the lawyers for Amaravati farmers claimed that some other individuals had not yet received notices. The bench directed that notices be sent to all respondents who had not received them. Considering the state government’s appeal as a lead matter, the further hearing was adjourned to December of this year.
