In a big relief to former chief secretary and present Andhra Pradesh state election commissioner (SEC), the state high court on Thursday upheld her appointment as the SEC, after the retirement of controversial officer Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar.
The high court dismissed a petition filed by one Regu Maheshwar Rao of Vizianagaram district in May this year, challenging the appointment of Neelam Sawhney as the SEC on the grounds that it was against the Supreme Court guidelines.
The high court, however, did not agree with the petitioner’s argument and ruled that the appointment of Neelam Sawhney was not in violation of any rules and was perfectly in accordance with the law.
The petitioner said Neelam’s appointment was illegal, as she had earlier worked as advisor to chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Interestingly, the same high court had in the past found fault with Neelam Sawhney for violating the Supreme Court ruling on the enforcement of model code of conduct four weeks before the conduct of local body elections.
However, a division bench of the high court later upheld her decision and allowed the counting of votes in the ZPTC and MPTC elections.