AP HC suspends gram panchayat poll schedule of SEC

The Andhra Pradesh High Court onMonday suspended the schedule announced by the State ElectionCommission for conducting elections to gram panchayats in fourphases next month, observing it would hamper the COVID-19vaccination programme.

The SEC immediately filed an appeal before a DivisionBench of the High Court against the single judges order.

Advocate N Ashwini Kumar, representing the SEC, requestedthat the appeal be taken up as an emergency since the courtwould be on Sankranti vacation till January 17.

He contended that the single judges order was incontradiction to the Supreme Court guidelines.

Earlier in the evening, Justice M Ganga Rao issued anorder on a petition by the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government,challenging the schedule, citing the vaccination programme, tobe taken up from January 16.

Advocate General Sriram Subramaniam told the court thatconduct of gram panchayat elections simultaneous to thecoronavirus vaccination programme would be difficult.

''The SEC has not objectively considered the view of thegovernment and has approached the subject matter in its owndomain,'' the judge observed.

The court said the gram panchayat elections would hamperthe (coronavirus) vaccination programme and, as such,suspended the SEC orders ''in the interests of public health''.

The court order is seen as a morale boosting victory forthe state government, which has been having a tussle with theSEC N Ramesh Kumar since March last year.

He was reinstated as SEC in May after the high courtstruck down an ordinance of the state government curtailingthe tenure of the poll body from five to three years.

Overruling the objections raised by the government, theSEC on Friday night announced the schedule for the polls to beheld on February 5, 9, 13 and 17.

Ramesh Kumar had announced the schedule hours after hismeeting with Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das and other topofficials.