IPS officers' transfer: Andhra Pradesh HC refuses to intervene in EC orders

VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh high court refused to intervene in the orders issued by the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) transferring three IPS officers including director general (Intelligence) AB Venkateswara Rao and directing the state government not to allot poll-related duties to them.

Following the orders from the high court, the state government transferred Rao and asked him to report at police headquarters.

The EC on Tuesday night had issued orders transferring Rao, Kadapa SP Rahul Dev Sharma and Srikakulam SP A Venkata Ratnam. The state government issued a government order complying with the EC order and transferred three officers.

However, the issue took a political turn with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) raised objections over the transfers.

The TDP alleged that the ECI is working with a bias and transferred the officers without specifying any reasons.

The ruling party alleged that the ECI has become a party to the conspiracy hatched by YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, in his letter to ECI, said that director general (Intelligence) has no role in election process.

Taking a step back from the GO transferring the officers, the state government issued another GO limiting the transfers to two SPs and exempted Rao. The state government also moved a petition challenging the decision of the EC.

The court on Wednesday and Thursday heard the matter and reserved the judgement. On Friday, the bench headed by acting chief justice C Praveen Kumar pronounced the judgement upholding the EC argument. The high court did not considered that argument of the state government that the director general (Intelligence) do not come under EC as per section 28A of Representation of People Act.