Andhra High Court upholds Election Commission’s orders

Hyderabad: In his confrontation with the Election Commission, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Friday suffered a major blow. Soon after the AP High Court refused to interfere with the orders of the Election Commission, the state government issued fresh orders transferring Director General, Intelligence A.B. Venkateshwara Rao.

Chief Secretary Anil Kumar Punetha in his orders asked Rao to report to the state police headquarters.

Earlier a division bench headed by the Chief Justice Praveen Kumar upheld Election Commission’s orders of Tuesday transferring three IPS officers including DG Intelligence.

This was being seen as a major victory for the opposition YSR Congress party on whose complaint the CEC took the decision to shift the three officials including Kadapa and Srikakulam districts SP Rahul Dev Sharma and A. Venkata Ratnam.

However, claiming that the DG Intelligence was not a designated official and he does not come under the jurisdiction of Election Commission the state government cancelled the first order and retained Venkateshwara Rao in his position. Naidu government had also challenged the decision of the EC in the state High Court.

High Court, which reserved the verdict on Thursday and pronounced it on Friday, dismissed the government writ petition. Chief Justice Praveen Kumar who heard the arguments of counsel for election commission D. Prakash Reddy and advocate general D. Srinivas said, “There was no case for any interim relief”.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Naidu was planning to move Supreme Court against the High Court orders. Soon after the HC judgement advocate general D. Srinivas met the Chief Minister to brief him. Sources said that Naidu was consulting the legal experts on his next move.

In its complaint to the Election Commission, YSRCP had alleged that several senior police officers were working to help the ruling Telugu Desam Party in the elections. It had also demanded action against the Director General of Police RP Thakur alleging that his convoy was used to transport Rs350 million (Dh18.7 million) to Prakasham district.

Meanwhile, a senior TDP leader K. Ravindra Kumar alleged that the vans of Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy owned Telugu daily “Sakshi” were being used to transport the money with the help of the BJP and Telangana Rashtra Samiti. He also demanded election commission to treat the reports published in Sakshi as paid news.