Division of assets: SC to hear AP's plea mid- Jan

State seeks an equitable and expeditious division of assets and liabilities between itself and Telangana

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear a plea filed by the Andhra Pradesh government, seeking an equitable and expeditious division of assets and liabilities between itself and Telangana, in the second week of January.

A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and M M Sundresh asked the Andhra Pradesh government to serve an advance copy of the petition to Telangana. "There are similar petitions pending. You serve the copy to the respondents," the bench said.

At the outset, the counsel appearing for the Andhra Pradesh government submitted that an extraordinary situation has arisen and the matter should be resolved. The top court said it will hear the matter in the second week of January 2023. The Andhra Pradesh government said it has approached the apex court as "parens patriae" (parent of the nation), claiming that a non-division of the assets has benefitted Telangana since about 91 per cent of those are situated in Hyderabad.

"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.

"Without adequate funding and actual division of assets in terms of the apportionment made under the Act (the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014), the functioning of the said institutions in the state of Andhra Pradesh has been severely stunted," the plea filed recently said.

Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated and a new state of Telangana came into existence on June 2, 2014. The petition said the employees working in the state institutions (numbering approximately 1,59,096) have been in a limbo since 2014, solely because there has been no proper division.

"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," it said. The Andhra Pradesh government said its institutions are an extension of the state and perform a range of basic and essential functions.

"Hyderabad (which is now a part of Telangana) was the capital of the combined state of Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad was not only transformed into an economic powerhouse as a result of the 'Capital Centric Development Model' but also, most of the institutions of governance (intended for the welfare of the people of all the regions of the state), including government infrastructure, were exclusively centred in and developed around the city of Hyderabad by extensively investing resources of the combined state," the plea said. 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.