The attempt by the YSR Congress party government headed by chief minister Y s Jagan Mohan Reddy to keep controversial retired IAS officer Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar from the post of State Election Commissioner received a setback in the Supreme Court.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court refused to stay the high court’s order, which described the state government’s ordinance reducing the tenure of SEC from five years to three years as illegal and asked the government to reinstate Nimmagadda as the SEC.
The Supreme Court was hearing a special leave petition filed by the Jagan government challenging the high court order and seeking a stay on it.
A division bench of the Supreme Court comprising chief justice Arvind Bobde and judges Justice A S Bopanna and Justice Hrishikesh Roy, said the ordinance issued by the government was not appropriate and the intentions behind promulgating the same were questionable.
It said the state government could not play with the constitutional bodies like SEC and gave two weeks’ time for the respondents to file their counter.
Now it remains to be seen whether the Jagan government would continue Nimmagadda as the SEC as the SC has not given a stay on the high court order or find any alternative route to prevent him from assuming the charge again.
