AP to take legal assistance against Council existence

Vijayawada: The state government may take a stand that the very existence of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council post the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 is “unconstitutional and illegal”.

The government is studying various legal opinions on the abolition of the council to formulate its stand in case of any judicial intervention.

The state Legislative Assembly has recently passed a statutory resolution and recommended to the Centre to take further steps.

Official sources told Deccan Chronicle that a top legal luminary, recently held discussions with state officials on a wide range of issues including abolition of the Council. The Legislative Councils in two states were carved out under Section 22 (1) of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 in which it was clearly stated that a Legislative Council for each of the successor states would be set up in accordance with Article 169 of Constitution of India. “As per the Article 169, the Council has to be created by Parliament based on a resolution recommending creation of a Council by the respective State Legislative Assembly,” the legal opinion pointed out.

The state Assembly did not pass any such resolution after 2014. Tho-ugh Section 22 (2) declared that the existing Andhra Pradesh Council was deemed to have been constituted as two Legislative Councils, one for Telangana state and one for Andhra Pradesh, legal experts have questioned its validity as the Constitution is supreme over the Act.

The refusal of the Centre to enhance the number of Assembly seats in the two Telugu states has been taken as the base to justify the contention that Constitution is superior to the Act.

The Centre took the stand that Article 170 (3) would prevail over the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 which provisioned for additional seats in assemblies of both states. It said the existing 175 seats in AP Assembly should be enhanced to 225 and 119 in Telangana state to 153 seats.

The law and justice ministry and the ministry of home affairs, however, took a stand that delimitation of Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies would happen only on the basis of first Census taken after 2026. It quoted the Article 170 (3) of the Constitution which was amended to take up delimitation after 2026.

The legal opinion pointed out that all resolutions passed by the council after 2014 are deemed to be unconstitutional and there was a need to revisit and modify them in accordance with the existing law. Further, it said spending about `60 crore every year on Council is also unjustified.