Andhra Pradesh CS Aditya Nath Das complains to Centre on SEC over orders to IAS officers

Amaravati: Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh Aditya Nath Das urged the Centre not to accept the censure proceedings issued by the State Election Commission against IAS officers and to advise the SEC not to exercise power that is not in its domain.

In a letter to the Secretary, Government of India, Department of Personnel and Training, the Chief Secretary said the Commissioner of SEC administered the censure proceedings against Panchayat Raj principal secretary Gopalakrishna Dwivedi and Commissioner M Girija Sankar on the allegation of not updating the gram panchayat electoral rolls as on 1-1-2021 without following the due procedure prescribed under AIS (D&A) Rules, 1969.

He said the SEC has written a derogatory letter against the named officers for the compulsory retirement. This step of SEC also doesn't fall under his competence and suffers from jurisdictional error.

The Chief Secretary stated that considering the guidelines, the state government has issued orders rejecting the censure proceedings issued by the State Election Commission.

He said that SEC's communications to the Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training, suffers from infirmities in the decision-making process and infraction of the law. Further, there has not been an iota of doubt regarding the conduct of officers during their past service.