On January 9, the division bench of Supreme Court led by Justices Sanjiv Khanna and M M Sundresh issued notice in a plea by the State of Andhra Pradesh seeking division of assets and liabilities between itself and the State of Telangana under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014.

The present plea filed through Advocate Mahfooz A Nazki stated that despite the two states being formed way back in June 2014, and whereby the apportionment of assets and liabilities were made under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, the actual division of assets has not even commenced till date, while repeated efforts have been made by the Andhra Pradesh government seeking speedy resolution. Therefore, the State moved to the top court as parens patriae to represent the cause of its people as well as its own rights, including the rights under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, seeking a fair, equitable and expeditious division of assets and liabilities of the erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh between the two newly formed states.

"The employees working in these institutions [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," the plea stated.

The petition also states that institutions being referred to in the petition perform various essential and basic functions such as, agriculture, dairy development, education, medical services, minority and backward class development, industrial development, infrastructure development, social security etc.

During the earlier hearing, the Senior Counsel appearing for the state government had pointed out before a bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and MM Sundresh that this was an extraordinary situation wherein the Act, which clearly apportions everything, was brought in the year 2014. He had also urged the court today that the issue needed to be resolved soon. The Court had agreed to hear the plea in January. 

Case Title: State of AP v. UoI And Anr. 
Citation: WP(C) No. 1091/2022