The YSR Congress party government in Andhra Pradesh filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court on Monday asking for a stay on the state high court’s orders reinstating Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar as the State Election Commissioner (SEC).
The petition was supposed to come up for hearing before the SC on Tuesday, but the SC did not admit the SLP, since it has some mistakes and included it in the defect cases list. Reason: the SLP mentions the AP government both as a petitioner and respondent.
As a result, the Jagan government is now forced to file a revised SLP in the Supreme Court, after rectifying the mistakes, in a day or two. Till such time, the fate of Nimmagadda hangs in balance.
Interestingly, it was only on Tuesday that the state government withdrew its review petition in the high court, seeking stay on the court’s earlier order. The government told the court that since it has already moved the Supreme Court for a stay.
The Jagan government challenged the high court’s order striking down the ordinance promulgated last month which sought to reduce the tenure of the SEC from five years to three years and appointing a judicial officer of the rank of a high court judge as the SEC.
Now, the government is planning to file three separate SLPs – one on validity of ordinance, second against the reinstatement of Nimmagadda and third one on continuing Justice V Kanagaraj as the SEC.