AP plans to move apex court
While the Telangana state government welcomed the decision of Union home ministry on the division of Higher Education Council, the AP government opposed it and said it is against the judgement of the Supreme Court.
While key officials in the AP government have already discussed the issue, the government may a call on moving the Supreme Court against the order after their discussion with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
According to AP officials, the Telangana government’s argument in the Supreme Court was that the assets of 10th Scheduled institutions have to be maintained as per the location of the respective states.
The officials recalled that the Supreme Court had refused to “agree with the contentions advanced by the senior council appearing for the state of Telangana”.
They said that the Supreme Court had further said that, “Heavy reliance has also been placed on Section 75 of the AP Reorganization Act, on the ground that the assets belonging to the specified institutions of the 10th Schedule exclusively belong to the state institutions. Since the Act does not provide any apportionment to them, we are wholly unable to agree with this contention advanced on behalf of the state of Telangana. If this contention is accepted, it would render Section 47 of the Act, which provides for the apportionment of assets and liabilities among the successor states, useless”.
However, the Union home ministry in its order said that the assets of State Higher Education Council should be shared by the two states on the location basis.
AP officials said when the Supreme Court had not agreed with location as the basis of division, how can the home ministry give order basing the same argument. They said that the home ministry’s order goes against to the Supreme Court’s judgment.
It may be recalled that the Union home ministry had issued orders on sharing of assets and employees, which said that assets of the Higher Education Council (HEC) should be shared on the basis of their location.
The order means that HEC assets located in AP belong to that state and those assets located in Telangana state belong to it. Regarding the issue of sharing of employees, the Union home ministry said that they should continue at their present place of work.
Regarding sharing of funds, it ruled that they should be shared on the basis of population of AP and TS, in the ratio of 58:42 respectively.
The order is more or less on the lines of what TS has been claiming.
The order has left the AP government worrying about the assets of other institutions it lays claims upon. AP’s argument has been that both assets and liabilities, including employees, should be shared between the two states on the basis of their population.