VIJAYAWADA: Justice V Kanagaraj, a former judge of the Madras High Court has been appointed State Election Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh. Orders to that effect were issued on Saturday morning and he assumed charge immediately.
Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan approved the Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj (Second Amendment) Ordinance to change the tenure, eligibility, and method of appointment of the State Election Commissioner (SEC) on Friday and later, the State Government issued a notification to the effect that with the ordinance coming into the force, incumbent SEC N Ramesh Kumar ceases to hold office. The Ordinance and the notification paved the way for the appointment of the new SEC.
The 75-year-old Justice Kanagaraj has been practicing law in the Supreme Court of India as Senior Advocate till his appointment as the SEC of Andhra Pradesh. He did his schooling in Salem and Chennai in Tamil Nadu. He graduated from The Loyola College in Madras and graduated in Law from the Madras Law College.
Justice Kanagaraj enrolled as a Lawyer in the Madras Bar Council in January 1973 and started practicing Law as a member of the Salem Bar Association. He had a highly successful career on all branches of Law for 24 years and on February 24, 1997, was elevated as a Judge of the Madras High Court.
Sitting on Single Benches, Division Benches and Full Benches and Leading Division Benches on most of the subjects both at the Principal Seat at Madras and at the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court at Madurai, he delivered a record number of about 69,000, many being landmark judgments. He was nominated to the Syndicate and Senate of Dr Ambedkar Law University, Tamil Nadu during 2002-2005. After his retirement, he continued his legal practice as Senior Advocate in the Supreme Court.
As reported by TNIE, under the amended Act, only a person who has held the office of a judge of a High Court will be held eligible to be appointed as SEC. The tenure will be three years and the incumbent could be continued for another three years.