VIJAYAWADA: The State government on Saturday asserted that it did not bring out the ordinance amending the AP Panchayat Raj Act to sack former State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar. In an affidavit submitted in the High Court, it submitted that the ordinance, which changed the tenure, eligibility and method of appointment of the SEC, was issued as part of electoral reforms.
As per the ordinance issued last week, the SEC’s tenure will be three years instead of five, and only a retired high court judge can be appointed to the constitutional office. “Nothing was done in haste. Ordinance was issued under Article 243 (K) of the Constitution,” it clarified. The counter-affidavit was submitted in response to a batch of petitions filed by the former SEC, BJP and TDP leaders challenging the legality of the ordinance.
The government contended that under Article 243 (K) (2), tenure of the SEC doesn’t come under service conditions and argued that it was well within its rights to take a decision on the SEC. The affidavit was filed by Panchayat Raj principal secretary Gopalakrishna Dwivedi. The government further stressed that its intention was to ensure free and fair elections. Dwelling at length on Ramesh Kumar’s conduct, the government recalled that he did not issue notification for polls to 1,47,477 panchayats.
Local polls were deferred due to coronavirus in Maharashtra, West Bengal and Odisha too and the model code of conduct was withdrawn in these states. Similarly, there the SEC had consulted the state governments before deferring the elections. In AP, Nimmagadda neither consulted the government nor withdrew the code of conduct,” it said. “He did not inform the court of his letter to the Centre. He behaved as if he did not trust government officers,” it said.