YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is struggling to find a way out to realise his dream to have three capitals for Andhra Pradesh, in the wake of the high court judgement last month that Amaravati would be the only capital of the state.
While reiterating his commitment for decentralised administration, Jagan told the assembly last week that he was exploring all legal options and studying various suggestions on the three capitals issue.
But legal experts said the high court judgement was very fool-proof and that the Jagan government has no option but to either implement it or go to the Supreme Court.
The other option is to get the AP Reorganisation Act amended by requesting the Centre.
As this is the situation, a statement made by Jagan’s finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy on Friday has taken everybody by surprise. He told the reporters that very soon, Kurnool is going to be the judicial capital of the state.
“We shall establish the judicial capital at Kurnool and we shall take all necessary permissions for the same for the construction of high court and other courts at Kurnool,” he said.
His statement triggered the obvious question: How the government is going to do and what the government is planning to do to counter the high court judgement.
If the judicial capital has to be formed at Kurnool, it has to be approved by the Supreme Court and later by the President of India.
It is not clear whether the Jagan government has been making any efforts in that direction.
In any case, it cannot be done, unless the high court judgement is challenged in the Supreme Court and is struck down there.
So, it is an interesting statement from Buggana. Whether he was only talking throw his hat or has any concrete plan of action remains to be seen,