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The Andhra Pradesh High Court has quashed the State government ordinance curtailing the tenure of the State Election Commissioner and ordered reinstatement of Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar.
The Court set aside the appointment of V Kanagaraj, a retired Madras High Court Judge as SEC and upheld the decision to postpone the elections because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A division bench of the High Court of Chief Justice JK Maheshwari and M Satyanarayana Murthy, while quashing the ordinance, ruled that the State government did not have the power to issue an ordinance under Section 213 of the Constitution.
The Court order is a major setback for Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. The State is likely to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Following the order, Ramesh Kumar has resumed charge.
He was removed for postponing local body polls scheduled for March 21 and 23 on the ground that the it would not be appropriate to hold elections as there was threat of spread of Coronavirus pandemic.
Against this, the State promulgated an ordinance on April 10 to reduce the tenure of SEC to three years from five, and appointed Kanagaraj.
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