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The Andhra Pradesh High Court had struck down Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj (Second Amendment) Ordinance (No.5 of 2020) and the consequential G.Os 617, 618 and 619 through which it had reduced the term of the State Election Commissioner (SEC) from the term of five years to three years. This resulted in the removal of Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar from the position.
Chief Justice J.K. Maheshwari along with Justice Satyanarayana Murthy had ordered the government to reinstate Mr. Ramesh Kumar as the SEC as soon as possible.
Due to the re-instating of Mr. Kumar as the SEC, it led to the exit of the current holder of SEC retired Judge V. Kanagaraj who was appointed just after Mr. Ramesh Kumar was forced to demit office.
The Court had found merit in the argument of Mr. Ramesh which was that the power vested under Article 213 of the Constitution to promulgate ordinances was not an absolute entrustment but was conditional keeping in view that the circumstances are satisfactory to bring up such actions.
The Court also agreed with Mr. Kumar’s argument that the impugned ordinance violated Article 243-K which says that a SEC could not be removed from its position apart from the same order through which a judge is removed from the High Court.
The government had brought the ordinance as a part of the local body election reforms and it was not meant for Mr. Ramesh Kumar.
The issue was that Mr. Kumar postponing the elections of urban and rural areas just few days before polling because of the coronavirus outbreak as it would spread the virus among people even more. This prompted the YSR Congress leaders and Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy himself to attribute motives against Mr. Kumar.
Mr. Kumar then moved to the High Court to seek justice.
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