The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Andhra Pradesh government to inform the state election commission and seek its approval in grounding welfare schemes and programmes.
Mukul Rohtagi, counsel for the Andhra Pradesh government, appealed to the Supreme Court to direct the state election commission to allow the welfare schemes and programs to continue in the state. Mukul Rohtagi appealed to the Supreme Court to direct SEC to lift and revoke the temporary ban on executing welfare programmes. He said currently there is no model code of conduct, but the state government’s welfare programmes got hindered.
To this, the Supreme Court CJI Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde asked the AP government counsel if the election commission barred the government from executing its welfare programmes. “Did the state election commission stop the government from going ahead with the welfare programmes,” Justice Bobde asked the state counsel. Further, Justice Bobde observed that it was imperative for the state government to consult the election commission before continuing welfare programmes.
On March 17, the Supreme Court upheld the SEC decision to postpone local body elections in the state but lifted the Model Code of Conduct. The State Election Commission (SEC) had postponed the election process of MPTC/ZPTC and urban local bodies citing the threat of Covid-19 pandemic. In a tearing hurry, the Jagan government promulugated the Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 to reduce the term of SEC to three years from five years. The Andhra Pradesh government removed Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar as SEC and retired Tamil Nadu judge Justice Kangaraj. The AP HC had directed the state government to reinstate Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar as the State election Commissioner (SEC), and also struck down the government’s appointment of Kangaraj as the SEC.
