India News | SC Refuses to Entertain Plea of Sarpanches for Declaring 21 'disputed' Villages as Part of AP

New Delhi, Mar 21 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea of five sarpanches seeking that 21 villages whose territory is claimed by both Andhra Pradesh and Odisha since 1968 be declared a part of the former.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kant also refused to quash the panchayat poll notification issued by the Odisha government for these disputed 21 villages.

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The bench noted that a suit under Article 131 is pending adjudication in the matter and it cannot grant such a relief of declaration of 21 villages as part of Andhra Pradesh on a plea filed under Article 32 of the Constitution.

At the outset, advocate Bina Madhavan, appearing for the sarpanches, said that this is an Article 32 petition filed by elected sarpanches of Salur municipal town of Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh.

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She said that since Andhra Pradesh came into existence these 21 villages are part of Vizianagaram district but a jurisdiction claim has been raised by Odisha.

"Since Andhra Pradesh came into existence, it has been conducting elections in these 21 villages," she said, adding that this plea may be tagged along with the Article 131 suit filed by Odisha, the poll notification be quashed and status quo be declared.

The bench asked when the election was scheduled as per the notification. Madhavan submitted that the elections were held in February.

The bench said that the petitioners need to challenge the election and it cannot subvert the elections and declaration of results under the Article 32 petition.

Madhavan said that they had filed the petition on February 11 before the conduct of the elections.

The bench said that it has serious questions over the maintainability of the plea as it would open a Pandora's box.

Advocate Sibu Shankar Mishra, appearing for the Odisha government, said that the Article 131 suit is pending and court has also passed orders on a contempt plea.

On February 12 last year, the top court had asked Andhra Pradesh to file its response on a plea filed by Odisha seeking contempt action against senior officials of the southern state for notifying panchayat polls in three "disputed area" villages of the petitioner state.

The Odisha government had contended that the Andhra Pradesh government is conducting the panchayat elections in the disputed area controlled by it.

The top court had then sought a reply from the Andhra Pradesh government on the contempt plea.

More than five decades since the first status quo order on the territorial jurisdiction dispute with AP over 21 villages, Odisha had moved the top court once again seeking contempt action against officials of the southern state for notifying panchayat polls in three of its villages.

The Naveen Patnaik government had said that the notification amounts to invading Odisha's territory.

The dispute over territorial jurisdiction over 21 villages popularly called as “Kotia Group of villages” first reached the top court in 1968 when Odisha on the basis of three notifications -- issued on December 1, 1920, October 8, 1923 and October 15, 1927 -- claimed that Andhra Pradesh had trespassed into its well-defined territory.

During the pendency of the suit filed by Odisha, the top court had on December 2, 1968 directed both the states to maintain status quo till the disposal of the suit and said, “There shall be no further ingress or egress on the territories in dispute, on the part of either party."

The suit filed by Odisha under Article 131 (the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction over any dispute arising between the states or between the Centre and a state) of the Constitution was finally dismissed on technical grounds by the top court on March 30, 2006, and with the consent of both the states it directed that status quo be maintained till the dispute is resolved.

Now, the Odisha government has sought contempt action against AP's three senior officials -- Mude Hari Jawaharlal (contemnor-1), collector of Vizinagaram district; Adityanath Das, Chief Secretary of AP (contemnor-2), and N Ramesh Kumar, State Election Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh (contemnor-3).

"Apparently, the said notification issued by contemnor number 1 in unison with contemnor number 2 and 3 is to invade into the territory of the petitioner state at the cost of wilful violation of order of this court. Therefore the contemnors are to be called upon to explain as to why contempt proceedings shall not be drawn against them and appropriate punishment shall not be awarded to them,” it had said.

The Odisha government has sought notice to the contemnors as to why contempt proceedings not be initiated against them for wilfully violating orders dated December 2, 1968 and March 30, 2006 passed by the court in the original suit.

“The petitioner state of Odisha is invoking the contempt jurisdiction of this court against the alleged contemnor for having wilfully and deliberately violated the order dated December 2, 1968 and the judgement dated March 30, 2006 passed by this court in original suit filed by State of Orissa and State of Andhra Pradesh,” the plea said.

The Odisha government further claimed that administratively and otherwise, it has been in control of these villages but of late “clandestinely the contemnors have entered into the impugned act of contempt by which the order of this court has been violated”.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)