State Advocate General says official returning to post not in accordance with High Court Judgment

A day after Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar resumed the office of Andhra Pradesh State Election Commissioner (SEC) following the Andhra Pradesh High Court order, on Saturday, State Advocate General Sriram Subrahmanyam said Kumar's action of returning to the office of SEC isn't in accordance with High Court Judgment.

Subrahmanyam told reporters that "Yesterday Andhra Pradesh High Court gave its order in SEC matter. I got judgment copy at 3 pm today. Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar circulated a memo to various government officers at 3.30 pm yesterday that he has been restored as SEC. That is a self-declaration. I looked at whether the ruling of the High Court allowed for self-declaratory restoration as attempted by Kumar & I found out that the High Court did not use sentences for self-declaratory restoration. It said that there has to be a follow-up action in the manner & directed the state to restore the office of Ramesh Kumar, which involves notice & set procedure. This is not in accordance with HC judgment".

He said that Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar asked SEC office personnel to send the vehicles of SEC to his Hyderabad office.

Subrahmanyam said that "The High Court verdict directed the state government to restore Ramesh Kumar as the SEC. We have applied for stay of the order & gave its copy to the advocate of Ramesh Kumar. State government asked my opinion & I told that they have to go to the Supreme Court. This morning Ramesh Kumar called on Prabhakar, the standing counsel for SEC and asked him to resign. Further, Ramesh said he wanted to infuse new blood . Prabhakar asked him for some time but Ramesh denied as he wants to have new standing counsel from June 1. These actions of Ramesh Kumar do not stand (in accordance) with the HC judgment".

On Friday, Ramesh Kumar resumed the office of Andhra Pradesh State Election Commissioner soon after the Andhra Pradesh HC ordered the State Govt to reinstate him.

The division bench of the HC, headed by its Chief Justice J K Maheshwari, cancelled the ordinance brought by the Gov changing the rules of appointment of State Election Commissioner stating that the State Govt has no power to do so. 

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