NE NEWS SERVICE
AMARAVATI, MAY 30
The Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday said it would go on an appeal to the Supreme Court against the High Court judgment quashing the Ordinance over the appointment of the State Election Commissioner.
The Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, comprising Chief Justice J K Maheshwari and Justice M Satyanarayana Murthy, on Friday struck down an Ordinance promulgated on April 10 curtailing the tenure of the State Election Commissioner from five to three years.
The High Court also quashed a Government Order appointing retired judge V Kanagaraj as the new State Election Commissioner.
The High Court delivered the judgment on a batch of writ petitions, including the one by the aggrieved Ramesh Kumar, challenging the Ordinance and the appointment of a new SEC.
“The Respondent-State is directed to restore the position of Dr N Ramesh Kumar as State Election Commissioner and allow him to continue in the office until completion of the tenure as notified vide G.O. Ms.No. 11 dated 30.01.2016, the Bench said.
“We have two months time to implement the High Court order. There is a judgment of the court…we are looking into it. We are entitled to appeal if we think we are aggrieved by it. We will go on appeal. We will await further adjudication by the Supreme Court on further actions,” state Advocate General Sriram Subramaniam told a press conference here on Saturday night.
Soon after the verdict, the government had filed an application in the High Court seeking a stay “till we approach the Supreme Court against the judgment, as it would lead to new consequences”, the Advocate General said.
Finding fault with a memo circulated by Ramesh Kumar “restoring himself” as the SEC immediately after the HC verdict, Subramaniam pointed out that the court had only asked the state government to take required action in this regard. “We have two months” time for that,” the Advocate General said.
