HYDERABAD: The central government on Tuesday proposed to increase the number of seats in the legislative assemblies of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu told media that the Centre will amend the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 to facilitate the increase in assembly seats in AP from 175 to 225 and in Telangana from 119 to 153. Naidu held a meeting with officials of the Union home and the law ministries, and met home minister Rajnath Singh. They decided to seek the opinion of the Attorney-General on the issue before moving the amendment to the Act.

The Section 26 (1) of the AP Reorganisation Act states that "subject to the provisions of Article 170 of Constitution", the number of seats in the legislative assembly of the successor states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana shall be increased. The Centre has now proposed to amend the Act deleting the reference of Article 170 to pave way for the increase of seats. "We will move the amendment to the Act after obtaining the views of the Attorney-General, who already expressed his opinion positively. As both states have agreed to the number of seats proposed in the Act, we see no hurdles in making the amendment. As early as possible the amendment will be carried by Parliament," Venkaiah Naidu told media.

Legal experts, however, argue that the central government cannot increase the Assembly seats unless it amends Article 170 that calls for a moratorium on increase in the number of seats of state assemblies and the Lok Sabha till the first census after 2026. This means the Centre cannot change the present number of seats till the completion of the census in 2031. "AP Reorganisation Act is a statute. A statute cannot override the basic framework of the Constitution," points out Hyderabad high court advocate Ravi Shankar Jandhyala. He says the Centre is empowered to amend the Article 170, but it involves many issues. You cannot deal only with the seats in state assemblies and leave the Lok Sabha. The states that performed well on population control through effective family planning implementation will be affected the most as their quota of LS seats will get reduced if the Article 170 is amended now. "Any move of this kind is against the basic structure of the Constitution," Ravi Shankar added.

Rakesh Reddy Dubbudu, coordinator of the Association for Democratic Reforms, AP and Telangana units, argues that since increasing the seats in legislative bodies will create more political opportunities, similar demand will come from other states too. "This defeats the very purpose of the deadline mentioned in the Article 170," he says adding that the Centre cannot increase the seats by amending the AP Reorganisation Act.

Earlier, TRS MP B Vinod Kumar moved a private bill seeking amendment to the AP Reorganisation Act and sought the support of all political parties.

Legal experts also did not buy with the Centre's argument that the very purpose of including Section 26 in the Act is to increase the assembly seats in both states. "If the provisions of Article 170 were to be followed, then there was no need for inserting Section 26 in the Act as states will get more seats after 2026 in any case," Venkaiah Naidu said.

On the other hand, sources in Union law ministry observed that it was a "drafting error" in the Act, where Section 26 begins with the phrase, 'subject to', instead of 'notwithstanding'. Law ministry officials reportedly told the home ministry that an amendment is needed to 'rectify' the same.

"There is no need to amend the Article 170 to increase the number of seats in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. A simple amendment to the AP Reorganisation Act will suffice. Parliament is empowered to carry the amendment and after the amendment the Election Commission will come into the scene," Bhanwarlal, chief electoral officer of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, told TOI.

Sources said the Centre wants to complete the process in three months.



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