Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Centre and Telangana government on a petition filed by the Andhra Pradesh government, seeking an equitable and expeditious division of assets and liabilities between Andhra and Telangana.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and MM Sundresh issued notice to the Centre and Telangana on the Andhra Pradesh government’s plea and posted the matter for hearing in April.
Senior advocate KV Viswanathan told the bench that the bifurcation of the State took place by the 2014 Act, which provides for the sharing of assets and the way it has to be done but still assets worth crores of rupees have not come to Andhra Pradesh.
Approaching the apex court, the Andhra Pradesh government said that a non-division of the assets has benefitted Telangana since about 91 per cent of those are situated in Hyderabad.
States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana came into existence as long back as on June 2, 2014, and the apportionment of assets and liabilities has been conclusively made under the Act between the successor states, the actual division of assets has not even commenced till date (despite repeated efforts by the government of Andhra Pradesh seeking a speedy resolution), said the plea.
After the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad became the joint capital of the two states and the transitional arrangement is slated to end in 2024.
“Assets and liabilities of not a single Institution specified in Schedule – IX [91 institutions], Schedule – X [142 Institutions] of the Act; and Institutions not mentioned in the Act [12 Institutions] have been apportioned between the successor states.
The total value of the fixed assets to be divided of the above 245 Institutions is about Rs.1,42,601 crores. Non-division of the assets is clearly to the benefit of Telangana since about 91 per cent of these assets are situated in Hyderabad (the capital of the erstwhile combined state) which is now in Telangana,” the plea contended.
It said that non-apportionment of the assets has led to a multitude of issues adversely affecting and violating the fundamental and other constitutional rights of the people of the state of Andhra Pradesh, including the employees of the said institutions.
Andhra Pradesh government said that without adequate funding and actual division of Assets in terms of the apportionment made under the Act, the functioning of the said Institutions in the State of Andhra Pradesh has been severely stunted.
The employees working in these institutions (approximately 1,59,096) have been in limbo since 2014 solely because there has been no proper division, the petition said, adding that the position of pensionable employees who have retired post bifurcation is pitiable and many of them have not received terminal benefits.
“It is therefore imperative that all these assets be divided at the earliest and a quietus be put to the issue,” said the petition.
These institutions are an extension of the state and perform a range of basic and essential functions, said the plea.
Andhra government in its plea said, “Assets have not yet been bifurcated has seriously debilitated their functioning which has a direct and adverse impact on the people of State Andhra Pradesh, who they are intended to serve.
Therefore, as a custodian of the interests of its people and so as to uphold their rights, the state of Andhra Pradesh is constrained to approach this Court and file the present writ petition.”
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