The Supreme Court on June 10 issued a notice to the State Election Commission (SEC) and others on an appeal of the Andhra Pradesh government against the recent High Court order striking down an ordinance curtailing the tenure of the State poll panel chief from five years to three. A Bench of Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy refused to stay the order and sought response from the SEC and Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar, who was restored as State poll panel chief.
On May 29, the High Court had struck down the ordinance promulgated on April 10 by the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government, curtailing the tenure of the SEC from five to three years.
It also quashed a Government Order appointing retired judge V. Kanagaraj as the new chief and restored retired bureaucrat Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar as chief of the State poll panel.
Justice V. Kanagaraj, a retired judge of the Madras High Court, had assumed charge as the SEC on April 11, replacing Mr. Kumar.
The High Court had delivered the judgment on a batch of writ petitions, including one by Mr. Kumar, challenging the ordinance and the appointment of a new SEC.
The YSR Congress government had, on April 10, abruptly removed Mr. Kumar from the post by promulgating the ordinance, amending the A.P. Panchayat Raj Act, 1994, curtailing the tenure of the SEC to three years from five.