Even as the YSR Congress party government in Andhra Pradesh issued gazette notifications de-notifying Amaravati as the capital city and announcing three capitals for the state, the state high court put brakes for the move for the time being.
On Tuesday, the state high court granted stay on the implementation of the two gazette notifications – one abolishing AP Capital Region Development Authority constituted to develop Amaravati as the state capital and the other one, forming three capital cities for decentralised development with executive capital at Visakhapatnam, legislative capital at Amaravati and judicial capital at Kurnool.
As a three-judge bench of the state high court took up the petition filed by the Rajadhani Rythu Parirakshana Samithi to stall the three capitals formation, the state advocate general asked for 10 days’ time for the government to file the counter.
When the petitioners expressed apprehensions that the government might shift some of the offices to Visakhapatnam by then, the high court ordered that status quo ante be maintained on the gazette notifications.
It means, Amaravati will remain the capital of Andhra Pradesh at least till August 14, since the stay is valid till then. However, it remains to be seen how long the courts can stop the capital shift process.