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THE ANDHRA PRADESH LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ACT, 2005

The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council Act, 2005 was enacted on January 11, 2006 for the purpose of providing the establishment of Legislative Council for the Andhra Pradesh State and other subjects related with such Council. The Legislative Council for the State of Andhra Pradesh was established on July 1, 1958 added with 90 members. But the Legislative Council was put to an end due to political reasons. Thereafter several endeavors were made to restore the Legislative Council. On July 8, 2004 the Legislative Assembly of the State of Andhra Pradesh passed a resolution to restore the Legislative Council and the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council Bill was passed by the House of People on December 15, 2005 and Rajya Sabha approved the Bill on December 20, 2005. After obtaining the assent of President on January 10, 2006, the Act was enforced. Later, the newly established Legislative Council was restored on March 30, 2007.

According to the provisions of the Act, the words as well as the expressions that are used under the Act but not described however, defined under the Representation of People Act, 1950 shall be interpreted similar to that of 1950 Act. From the date specified by the President by an order, the Andhra Pradesh State shall have a Legislative Council and Article 168 (1) (a) of the Constitution of India shall stand amended in this behalf. The Legislative Council shall consists of 90 seats where the number of seats to be included shall be 31, 8 and 8 correspondingly with persons chosen by the electorates pointed out under Article 171 (3) (a),(b) and (c). The persons to be filled through elections shall be 31 by the members of Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly as per the provisions of Article 171 (3) (d). Moreover, the persons suggested by the Andhra Pradesh Governor shall be 12 by virtue of Article 171 (3) (e) of the Constitution of India. Immediately subsequent to the initiation of the enactment, the President shall decide by order, after discussion with the Election Commission, the allotment of the constituencies of the Andhra Pradesh State in order to settle on the goal of election to the Legislative Council. It shall also decide on the area of all the constituencies, the total number of seats that are to be allocated etc. After the purpose, necessary stages shall be complied to establish the Legislative Council as per the provisions of the enactment, Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 as well as 1951.

The Act amended the Schedule III and Schedule IV of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950. In the Schedule IV entries like Municipal Corporations, Municipalities, Nagar Panchayats, Cantonment Boards, Zila Praja Parishads and Mandal Praja Parishads was inserted. In addition, Section 15A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 was also modified. The Legislative Councils Act, 1957 was replaced with the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council Act, 2005. In accordance with the powers conferred under the present Act, the President of India had issued the Delimitation of Council Constituencies (Andhra Pradesh) Order, 2006. In this order, the President has settled on the seats to be allotted to each constituency like the teacher’s constituencies, local authority’s constituencies and graduate’s constituencies. Due to the division of the Andhra Pradesh State, the Legislative Council was also divided. From the entire 90 members of the Legislative Council of Andhra Pradesh, 40 seats were allocated to the State of Telangana.

Moreover, the Andhra Pradesh State was constituted on October 1, 1953 by Andhra Pradesh State Act, 1953. The State was formed by uniting the northern parts of Madras State where Telugu is being spoken. In November 1, 1956 the Telangana part located in the Hyderabad State was also included to the State of Andhra Pradesh. In the year 2014, the Telangana State was formed by Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.