VIJAYAWADA: State Election Commissioner (SEC) Justice V Kangaraj on Monday informed the Andhra Pradesh High Court that BJP leader Kamineni Srinivas, veteran TDP leader Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao and others had no locus standi to file petitions on the ordinance issued by the State government changing the tenure and eligibility of the SEC. On an interesting day in court when both the SEC and his predecessor Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar filed affidavits, the SEC made some startling submissions.
“Former minister and BJP leader Kamineni Srinivas lifted 13 paras from Nimmagadda’s petition verbatim. It shows Nimmagadda had sent his petition to Kamineni. The former filed his petition on April 11 and Kamineni the next day. Besides, Kamineni misled the court claiming to be a practicing doctor,” the SEC submitted.
Pointing out that only Nimmagadda can file a petition on the ordinance, he argued that the other petitioners did not contest the elections. Some of them are not even voters. Hence, their pleas are not maintainable. Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao and some others, in their petitions, said Nimmagadda had written a letter to the Union Home Ministry seeking protection. But no such correspondence is in the SEC records,” the SEC said.
He found fault with Nimmagadda’s claim that law and order in the State had deteriorated in the run-up to the local elections in March. “If 54,594 nominations were filed for MPTC and ZPTC polls, only 0.078 complaints were received. For 15,185 nominations for municipalities, only 0.092 complaints were received,” he submitted, adding that he had assumed office after his appointment by the Governor.
“Nimmagadda took a unilateral decision to defer polls. SEC has to follow laws enacted by the State. It is meaningless to claim ordinance was promulgated only to see the back of Nimmagadda. It is regrettable that motives were attributed to the Governor,” he said and urged the court to dismiss Nimmagadda’s plea.
Nimmagadda, on his part, reiterated that the SEC has every right to defer elections depending on the prevailing situation in the State. “I deferred the elections by using the constitutional powers of the office of the SEC as part of efforts underway to prevent the spread of coronavirus,” he explained.
Nimmagadda also argued that the SEC need not discuss the issue of elections with the Secretary and said the decision was taken after seeking legal opinion. “Secrecy must be maintained for this purpose. I signed on the relevant papers only after the legal department drafted the notification for deferring elections,” he clarified.
Final hearing from Tuesday
A division bench comprising Chief Justice GK Maheswari and Justice M Satyanarayana Murthy will begin final hearing today on a bunch of petitions filed by Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar and others challenging the validity of the ordinance changing the tenure and eligibility of SEC.