NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, JULY 24
The Supreme Court on Friday termed as “unfortunate” that Andhra Pradesh Governor had to intervene for implementation of High Court’s order directing reinstatement of Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar as State Election Commissioner (SEC).
A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian issued notice on an application seeking stay on the contempt proceedings against the state government in the Andhra Pradesh High Court and asked senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Kumar to file a reply affidavit to it.
“Issue notice, returnable after one week. At the request Harish Salve, Senior Counsel appearing for the respondent(s), reply affidavit to the instant application may be filed in the meantime,” the bench said in its order.
During the hearing, the bench observed, “It is unfortunate that Governor had to intervene to reinstate Ramesh Kumar as SEC after High Court’s judgement…there are contempt proceedings (against AP government) going on. What is this?”
Salve said that he needs a week’s time to file an affidavit to bring some additional facts regarding the contempt proceedings before the High Court.
He said that the order of the High Court directing reinstatement of Kumar has not been complied with and a contempt plea was filed by him against the state government.
Salve also pointed out that some unwarranted comments were made against judges of the High Court after the verdict for reinstatement of Kumar.
Counsel appearing for state government assured the bench of complying with the High Court’s judgement.
Kumar, in an application filed in the top court to bring some additional facts on record has said that the High Court on his contempt plea had on July 17, gave him liberty to approach governor for implementation of its order of reinstatement.
He said that on July 21, the office of Andhra Pradesh Governor informed him that state government has been directed to take necessary action as per he directions of the High Court.
Kumar said, meanwhile, an application seeking a stay on the contempt proceeding before the High Court was filed before the top court by the state government.
On July 8, the top court had told that it intends to dispose of in couple of weeks a batch of pleas, including one filed by AP government, challenging the high court order which struck down an ordinance curtailing the tenure of the state poll panel chief from five to three years.
The top court had said that it would not pass any interim order and would dispose of the pleas in next two to three weeks after counsel for state government argued that during the interregnum, Governor may be requested to appoint an interim state election commissioner as election work in the state has been put on hold.
On June 10, the top court had refused to stay the order of the High Court striking down an ordinance promulgated by the Andhra Pradesh government curtailing the tenure of the state poll panel chief from five years to three.
It had issued notices and sought response from the State Election Commission (SEC) and Kumar, who was restored as state poll panel chief by the High Court.
The top court had agreed to hear the plea of state government challenging the recent decision of Andhra Pradesh High Court striking down the ordinance and asked Kumar and others to file their response in two weeks.
It had said that there are some constitutional issues involved, which require hearing.
The top court had said it was not satisfied that the motives of the state government were entirely innocent.
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 Ramesh Kumar.
The High Court had delivered the judgment on a batch of writ petitions, including the one by Ramesh Kumar, challenging the Ordinance and the appointment of a new SEC.
The YSR Congress government had on April 10 abruptly removed Ramesh Kumar from the post by promulgating the ordinance, amending the AP Panchayat Raj Act, 1994, curtailing the tenure of the SEC to three years from five.
