SC to hear plea on AP’s three capitals on Feb. 23

VIJAYAWADA: The Supreme Court would take up the hearing on Andhra Pradesh’s three-capitals plans on February 23.

A division bench of Justice K.M. Joseph and Justice B.V. Nagarathna held a hearing on a batch of petitions filed on the issue in New Delhi on Monday.

AP government’s senior counsel Niranjan Reddy sought an early hearing of the petitions. However, petitioners’ counsels submitted to the court that they had received notices sent by the court only on January 27 and hence sought two weeks to file their counter-affidavits.

After hearing both the parties, the court deferred the case for next hearing on February 23 and directed the respondents to file their counters and the AP government too to do so.

The AP government had filed an SLP in the apex court, challenging the AP High Court’s verdict that the AP legislature lacked the competence to make legislation on having three capitals for the state.