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Hasn’t TS adopted AP laws blindly?
The Section 101 reads as follows: “For the purpose of facilitating the application in relation to the State of Andhra Pradesh or the State of Telangana of any law made before the appointed day, the appropriate Government may, before the expiration of two years from that day, by order, make such adaptations and
The Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act (APRA), 2014, provided for the government of the newly created State of Telangana to adopt any laws enacted by the combined Andhra Pradesh Legislature before June 2, 2014. The idea behind this was to let the new State avail of the laws governing State-level functions and institutions till such time as the Legislature of Telangana State becomes fully operative.
The Section 101 reads as follows: “For the purpose of facilitating the application in relation to the State of Andhra Pradesh or the State of Telangana of any law made before the appointed day, the appropriate Government may, before the expiration of two years from that day, by order, make such adaptations and modifications of the law, whether by way of repeal or amendment, as may be necessary or expedient, and thereupon every such law shall have effect subject to the adaptations and modifications so made until altered, repealed or amended by a competent Legislature or other competent authority.”
Thus, Section 101 allows the Government of Telangana by a simple order published in the Gazette to adopt any law of the unified State existing as of 2nd June, 2014. It also allows the government to make such adaptations, changes and modifications as required. It also allows the government to repeal any such legislation.
All of these adoptions, adaptations, changes and modifications would necessarily be justifiable only in their application to the State of the Telangana. It also gave the State government two years to do this and required the State government to place these adopted laws before the Legislative Assembly of Telangana for its approval and formal adoption.
What should the State government have done? It should have constituted a committee or commission headed by a retired High Court judge conversant with the state judicial system to consider and recommend what needed to be done.
He would have examined the list, called on the relevant Principal Secretaries of government departments to make their case for the laws concerned – either for adoption with or without changes or for repeal. Thereafter, he would have made recommendations to the Cabinet and the Cabinet would have made the appropriate decision in the matter. All this could have been done in a space of six months.
What has the government done? It has waited for one year and 364 days and on 1 June 2016 - THE LAST DAY when it was empowered to do so - issued a gazette notifying adoption of 177 laws of the State of Andhra Pradesh as the laws of the State of Telangana and repeal of 77 laws as not applicable to Telangana. Earlier, it had adopted 75 laws by issuing government orders by the respective Departments – whether this procedure is correct can only be examined by the High Court.
As per the current gazette notification, some of the laws adopted clearly reveal the lack of application of mind of anyone even in simply reading the list and coming to a conclusion of the relevance of these laws to Telangana.
This is illustrated by some of the laws now adopted by the State of Telangana vide this Gazette notification:1.The Andhra Pradesh Minor Ports Landing and Shipping Fees Act, 1885, has been adopted as The Telangana Ports Landing and Shipping Fees Act, 1885 2.The Andhra Pradesh Marine Fishing (Regulation) Act, 1995, has been adopted as the Telangana Marine Fishing (Regulation) Act, 1995.
All this despite Telangana having no coastline for ports – minor or major!Another example:Without even change of name, the following Acts were adopted:
(1)Sri Padmavathi Mahila Vishwavidyalayam (Women's University) Act, 1983;
(2) Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences University Act, 1995;
(3) Sri Venkateswara Vedic University Act, 2006;
(4) Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University Act, 2008; and
(5)The Dravidian University Act, 1997.
The above Universities concerned are located in the state of Andhra Pradesh and cannot therefore come under the jurisdiction of the Telangana government. (Incidentally earlier other Universities Acts were renamed while making adoption: Dr.NTR University of Health Sciences Act after Kaloji Narayan Rao and Dr YSR Horticultural University Act after Konda Laxman Bapuji and Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University Act after Prof K Jayashankar.
The gazette notification is signed by the Chief Secretary of Telangana State and is issued under the authority of the Governor of Telangana. Since the Telangana Governor is also the Governor of Andhra Pradesh he has now allowed the two States to have the same laws and jurisdiction over the same institutions.
The State of governance in Telangana is clearly indicated by this. It must be noted by His Excellency, the Governor of Telangana State, for taking such action as may be deemed necessary under the above circumstances. (Writer is a Member, Rajya Sabha)
By:Palvai Govardhan Reddy
