In the final legal battle between the YSR Congress government in Andhra Pradesh and state election commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar over the conduct of local body elections, the SEC gained an upper hand.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the special leave petition filed by the Jagan government seeking to stall the process initiated by SEC for the conduct of gram panchayat elections in the state.
A division bench of the apex court comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Hrishikesh Roy made it clear that the elections for the gram panchayats in Andhra Pradesh should be held as scheduled and vaccination was no hurdle for the conduct of elections.
The bench asserted that it would not allow the Constitutional breakdown in the state and it would not like interfere in the powers of the state election commission.
It also dismissed the petitions filed by the employees impleading in the case, opposing the election process.
“This is against the law. In what way the government employees are concerned with the decision? They have no business to intervene in the dispute between two constitutional systems,” the bench said.
Stating that the conduct of elections was part of the Constitutional process, Justice Kaul wondered whether elections were not held anywhere in the country.
“When there was Coronavirus situation, you wanted elections. Why are you opposing it? You cannot attribute motives to the SEC,” he asked.