Amaravati: Soon after the High Court ordered the state government to reinstate him, Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar resumed charge as the Andhra Pradesh State Election Commissioner on Friday.
The bench cancelled the ordinance brought by the government changing the rules of appointment of State Election Commissioner, stating that the state government has no power to do so.
The bench observed that Kumar's reinstatement would be with immediate effect and continue to serve the post until his term ends. After the court's order, Kumar said that he has resumed the charge and he will discharge his duties fairly and impartially.
"I have resumed charge. I will discharge my duties fairly and impartially as I did in the past and as mandated. In consultation with the principal stakeholders and all the political parties, I wish to resume the electoral process to the local bodies at the earliest on the return of normalcy!" he said.
He added that individuals are not permanent but Constitutional institutions and the values they represent alone are permanent in the end.
"Those who have taken an oath of office to protect the constitution, have a greater responsibility to continue to protect and safeguard these institutions and their integrity," he said.
Read:Big setback to Jagan govt as AP HC reinstates Ramesh Kumar as SEC
Earlier in the day, a division bench of the High Court headed by Chief Justice JK Maheshwari set aside various government orders (GOs) issued by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government, which replaced Kumar with Justice Kanagaraju, a former judge of the Madras High Court.
"The High Court has set aside the order given by the Andhra Pradesh state government. In fact, that is the Governor, who issued the ordinance, making changes to the Panchayat Raj Act. Unfortunately, the Governor derives power and the 243 k of the Constitution by the ordinance and GOs speak about Section 200 of Panchayat Raj Act. It is so unfortunate how can a father of an act derives power from the same act which he has enacted," J Ravishankar, an advocate of Kumar, told a news agency.
"The minimum basic of constitutional provisions were not looked into. An amendment to the act in the form of ordinance goes to the root of the matter and the changes will be made to act. How can an ordinance speak about removal of a person who is holding the post on date -- that's another biggest flaw. Also, Kumar's tenure was reduced by 8 to 9 months, which was unconstitutional," he said.
Kumar, an IAS officer, had strained relations with the Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who had personally met the governor to complain against him on March 14 hours after the SEC postponed the elections to rural and urban local bodies were scheduled on March 21 and 23 respectively.
Ramesh Kumar cited precautionary measures required to check the spread of coronavirus for postponing the polls.
This had triggered angry reaction from YSR Congress Party government, which accused him of acting at the behest of opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
(With inputs from agencies)
