Petitions on ‘three capitals’ infructuous as Amaravati is A.P’s sole capital by law, says High Court

A full Bench of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, led by Chief Justice Lisa Gill and comprising Justices Ninala Jayasurya and B.S. Bhanumathi, observed that the grant of legal sanctity to Amaravati as the sole Capital of Andhra Pradesh through an amendment to the A.P. Reorganisation Act of 2014 rendered the batch of writ petitions challenging the proposed ‘three capitals’, which came up for hearing on September 25, infructuous.

Justice Gill said matters that might still be pending would be examined on November 20, while taking note of the likelihood of the appeals filed in the Supreme Court against the High Court’s ‘Amaravati judgment’ dated March 3, 2022, being heard on November 29.

Representing the State, Advocate-General Dammalapati Srinivas informed the High Court that the government had filed an affidavit in the apex court in December 2024, expressing its commitment to complete the infrastructure projects in Amaravati in three years. Accordingly, the works were going on at a brisk pace, and, therefore, the writ petitions must be closed after duly recording the facts, he said.

The counsel for some petitioners said it would be appropriate on the part of the government to settle the issue once and for all by withdrawing the Special Leave Petition filed by the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government in the Supreme Court against the High Court’s adverse judgment on legislations that facilitated three capitals (AP Capital Region Development Authority Repeal and AP Decentralisation & Inclusive Development of All Regions Acts, 2020).

Senior advocate Unnam Muralidhar Rao insisted that the matters stayed open, pointing out that the capital works were incomplete and that the farmers who gave their lands had not yet received developed plots.

The Bench noted that it could not set new deadlines because the Supreme Court had stayed the timelines, to which he responded that the stay covered only the infrastructure deadlines and nothing about returning developed plots to farmers.

Senior counsel Jandhyala Ravi Sankar told The Hindu that more than 120 petitions had been filed in the High Court against the proposed three capitals and his prayer for continuous mandamus was conceded in the impugned High Court judgment. The matters under review were largely procedural in nature as the larger issue of capital was decided on merits.

It may be recalled that the then Chief Minister, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, had proposed to develop Amaravati, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool as the Legislative, Executive and Judicial capitals in December 2019, which triggered widespread protests, mainly by farmers who gave their lands under the LPS for the construction of Amaravati.

The YSRCP government had challenged the High Court judgment by filing a SLP in the Supreme Court. Against this backdrop, the Parliament passed the AP Reorganisation (Amendment) Act in April 2026 giving statutory recognition to Amaravati as the only capital of Andhra Pradesh.