The Andhra Pradesh Reorganization (Amendment) Act of 2015 (Act no. 12 of 2015) of was enacted by the Parliament of India with the intent to amend the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 (Act no. 6 of 2014). It was seen in the year 2014 when the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 was enacted for making provisions to reorganise the State of Andhra Pradesh into the State of Andhra Pradesh and the State of Telangana. However, its Section 22 was providing for the constitution of a Legislative Council for each of the successor States consisting of not more than Fifty members in the Legislative Council of Andhra Pradesh and 40 members in the Legislative Council of Telangana. Moreover, the said Act has also seeking the amendments to this effect in the Entry 1 of the Third Schedule to the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (Act no. 43 of 1950). However, the fact remained un- settled that as per the Article 171 clause (1) of the Constitution of India, the number of the members in the Legislature Council of the State having such a Council should not be exceeded to one- third of the the total number of the members in the Legislative Council of a State and in any case it should not be less than 40. But, in case of the successor states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, they are having 175 and 119 seats respectively in their Legislative Assemblies. In case of Telengana the decision of allocating 40 seats is correct as per rule, but for Andhra Pradesh’s Legislative Assembly, the seats allocated were 50 rather than 58 which can be correctly drawn by applying the one- third rule i.e. one- third of 175. Thus, the present Amending Act is enacted to this effect.
Thus, the present Amending Act is seeking amendment in the provisions of the Principal Act of 2014 and it is basically offering only 3 sections, in which first section is making introductory provisions, as to the title clause. Moreover, this first section is also offering that the Central Government should be having responsibility of bringing this Amending Act and provisions thereof in force through a notification in the Official Gazette.
Moreover, this Amending Act is offering the amendments in the provisions of section 22 of the Principal Act. The said section 22 of the Act is making provisions for the constitution of the Legislative Council for successor states of Andhra Pradesh and Telengana. Now with the amendments, there should be 58 members in place of the 50 members to the Legislative Council of Andhra Pradesh.
Moreover, this Amending Act is also seeking to amend the provisions of the Section 23 of the Principal Act, where originally, the Principal Act was providing for the provisions for the Legislative Council. It was allocating forty seats for the newly created state of Telengana and also allocating Fifty seats for the newly created another state of Andhra Pradesh. However, now as per the amendment, the sub- section (1) of the section 23 of the Principal Act, will be found mentioning the ‘58 seats in the Legislative Council of Andhra Pradesh’ in place of the words ’50 seats in the Legislative Council of Andhra Pradesh’. Moreover, the present Amending Act is also seeking to replace the sub clause (a) of the clause (i) of the Sub- section (2) of the Section 23 of the Principal Act of 2014, where, entries in the Third Schedule to the Representation of the People Act, 1950 was sought to be changed as per earlier / Principal Act. But now, as per the Amending Act, the said entry sub- clause (a) is replaced with the new sub clause (a) where, in the second column, for ’50, 17, 5, 5, 17, 6’, the ’58, 20, 5, 5, 20, 6’ numbers is inserted. Thus, the present Amending Act is enacted to remove the said difficulties relating to the membership and their numbering.
Read the Bare Act here