Andhra Pradesh takes row to Supreme Court

Hyderabad: The recent High Court judgement regarding the AP State Council of Higher Education has been a major setback for the Andhra Pradesh government, which is claiming a share in the assets of the state-level institutions listed in the 10th Schedule of State Reorganisation Act.

The AP government has decided to challenge the High Court orders in the Supreme Court. AP chief secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao told Deccan Chronicle that concerned officials had already left for New Delhi and they would file a petition in the SC  in a day or two.

Both states haven’t moved from their demand for rights over state-level institutions and the issue has reached the legal battle stage. The two chief secretaries had also held a one-on-one meeting, but could not reach a solution.

Recently, the Union home secretary had held discussions with both chief secretaries and other officials in Hyderabad, but it was in vain. The decision was left to the Sheela Bhide Committee, which was appointed by the Centre to look into these institutions.

There are 107 state-level institutions in the 10th schedule of the State Reorganisation Act. Among them, 97 are located in Telangana, mostly in Hyderabad.

The Telangana government’s argument is that since most of these institutions are located in Hyderabad, they belong to the state and will only provide services to AP according to Section 75 of the Act.

But AP CS  I.Y.R. Krishna Rao said that the Telangana government was misquoting the Section as it dealt with the provision of services and did not mention sharing of assets and liabilities.

He said that sharing of assets and liabilities was dealt in part 6 and covered in Section 64 of the Act. Mr Rao said that these institutions were manned by personnel drawn from TS as well as AP and had built competence over five-six decades.  It would not be correct to say that since they were located at a specific place they would devolve exclusively to that state.