Andhra Pradesh: SEC files contempt petition against Principal Secretary, Chief Secretary

Nelapadu (Amaravati): Andhra Pradesh State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar filed contempt petition in state High Court here on Friday against panchayat raj principal secretary Gopal Krishna Dwivedi and chief secretary Nilam Sawhney stating that they have wilfully and deliberately violated the directions of the High Court and are liable to be punished for contempt of court.

Advocates for the State Election Commission (SEC) N Ashwani Kumar, K Ajay Kumar, U Raghava Krishna and D Vamsikrishna filed the contempt petition in the High Court.

Ramesh Kumar stated in the affidavit that both the officials failed to cooperate and provide budget and release of funds to the SEC to discharge its duty of conducting elections thereby affecting the independence of the commission.

Recalling a series of incidents that happened since March this year, the commissioner said that the SEC issued notification on March 7 and 9, 2020 to conduct elections for panchayats and municipal bodies respectively. Though the election process has begun, following the outbreak of pandemic Covid-19 the EC thought the election process could not go ahead in the larger interest of the people. Moreover, all the opposition parties alleged and widely reported in the media that the electoral process witnessed unprecedented violence and intimidation by the ruling party candidates with the active connivance of the police.

Meanwhile, the Union healthy ministry issued health advisory to contain the spread of the pandemic by maintaining social distance and the SEC resolved to postpone the elections by six weeks or any other date and issued notification on March 15. This invited criticism from the ruling party and several derogatory remarks and allegations were made against the commissioner. The life of the commissioner and his family members were threatened.

The state government challenged the EC notification in the Supreme Court which disposed it of refusing to interfere with the decision of the EC.

Thereafter, the state government hastily through an ordinance amended AP Panchayat Raj Act altering the qualifications, term of office of the commissioner. It had announced the commissioner ceased to hold the office and appointed Justice Kanagaraj to the post of the SEC. The SEC challenged the appointment in the High Court which directed the state government to allow the SEC to continue in the office. It is apt to state here that the SEC was reinstated only after the contempt petition was filed in the High Court.

The chief secretary sanctioned Rs 40 lakh for election expenditure on January 17, 2020 but the amount was kept deliberately pending. The SEC requested the chief secretary to release the amount the respondents failed to act though they are constitutionally mandated to cooperate and assist the SEC.

Aggrieved by the inaction of the respondents to conduct the elections, the SEC stated that it was total disobedience of the respondents and the high court may summon them and punish them for the contempt of court. The respondents may be directed to cooperate and provide assistance to the commissioner in conducting elections in February 2021.