AMARAVATI: The Andhra Pradesh government Friday transferred the Director General of Intelligence A B Venkateswara Rao shortly after the High Court rejected its plea challenging the Election Commission's order.
Chief Secretary Anil Chandra Punetha issued a G.O. transferring Rao and directing him to report to the police headquarters.
The high court rejected the state government's contentions, particularly that the DG had nothing to do with the conduct of elections and that the EC had no jurisdiction over him and ruled there was "no case for interim relief."
The high court refused to stall EC's order, transferring two IPS officers, including the Director General of Intelligence and a non-cadre officer in the state government, and keeping them away from election duties.
The Chief Secretary directed the Director General of Police (Head of Police Force) to not assign any election-related work to Rao till the completion of current elections.
The Election Commission on Tuesday night directed the AP Chief Secretary to shift the Intelligence DG and not assign him any poll duties.
The Chief Secretary immediately issued an order transferring the 1989 batch IPS officer.
However, Punetha issued another order on Wednesday afternoon, after Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu raised an objection to Rao's transfer, and cancelled Tuesday night's G.O.
Neither the ruling Telugu Desam Party nor the state government were not so particular about the EC's same directive in respect of the district SPs of Kadapa and Srikakulam.
The Chief Minister was adamant the Intelligence chief be continued in the same post and the state officials apparently toed his line.
The state government also filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the EC directive.
A division bench of the High Court, comprising acting Chief Justice Praveen Kumar and Justice Satyanarayana Murthy, ruled that there was "no case for interim relief" in the matter and said the state government should comply with the EC order.