The decision of the AP High Court to uphold Amaravati as the only capital of AP was challenged by the Andhra Pradesh government in the Supreme Court. The High Court stated in its decision that the state legislature lacked the authority to pass legislation establishing the three capitals.

This petition at Supreme Court was supposed to be heard by a three-judge bench, but Justice S. Ravindra Bhatt was unavailable in the morning, leaving only a two-judge bench consisting of CJI Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice Bela Trivedi to hear it.                                                
                                                                                                                                                          Soon after the hearing began, a senior counsel representing Amaravati farmers informed the court that when CJI Lalit was a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court, he provided legal advice to YS Jagan on a variety of issues.
Considering the facts raised by the senior counsel, the CJI himself stated that it would be inappropriate to take up the hearing and invoked the "not before me" provision.