Amaravati R5 Zone: Supreme Court to hear farmers’ petitions next week

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear the batch of special leave petitions (SLPs), opposing the R5 Zone in Amaravati, next week. Farmers of the Amaravati capital region, who have been agitating against the State Government’s plans to shift administrative base to Visakhapatnam, filed these petitions in the apex court, challenging the recent order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

The high court has recently dismissed the farmers’ writ petitions challenging the GO for the distribution of house site pattas to non-locals and low-income residents, which in short, is referred to as R5 Zone. The counsel for the farmers on Monday, in a special mention before the division bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, requested that their petitions be taken up for immediate hearing.

In response to this, the CJI announced that the petitions would be heard next week.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court last week paved the way for the distribution of the house site pattas to weaker sections and non-locals as part of the R5 Zone. High Court Chief Justice Prashanth Kumar Mishra made some interesting observations, stating that distribution of house site pattas to the weaker sections was also tantamount to development of the capital region.

Refusing to intervene in the State Government’s initiative with a stay order, as requested by the petitioners, Chief Justice Prashanth Mishra felt that it would be inappropriate to say that weaker sections should be kept away from the capital region. “The capital region does not belong to any one individual or section. It belongs to everyone including the weaker sections. How can we say that they (weaker sections) be prohibited from the capital region? R5 Zone implementation is also part of the development of the Amaravati capital region,” the Chief Justice observed while dismissing the petitions of the farmers.