AP High Court gives verdict on Nimmagadda Ramesh's petition, orders govt to submit a report

Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday issued a verdict of the state election commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar's petition against the government over non-cooperation with the Election Commission. The court has believed that the government was acting as a non-cooperative as the person they had fired had returned as SEC. "Governments will change but the constitutional institutions will always exist; democracy is in danger of collapsing if constitutional institutions are not protected," the High Court said.

The High Court ordered the State Election Commission to submit detailed petition to government within 3 days and directed the government to look into this and submit the report to the High Court within 15 days in the form of a report what the government has done. Also, the court has made harsh remarks on the issue of fee payments to former justice Kanagraj.

The High Court said that if Kanagaraj appoints an Advocate, he should make his own payments to the Advocate and asked election commission to reconsider whether to Kanagraj be paid Rs 20 lakh for house and Rs 15 lakh for furniture. "The details of the expenditure incurred for Kanagaraj's lawyer should be made known to the people, all of which belong to the people," High Court asserted.

Earlier, Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar has moved state high court again alleging that the Jagan Mohan Reddy government was not cooperating with him in the conduct of the elections to local bodies. In his petition, he alleged that the government of Andhra Pradesh led by chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is not releasing any funds to the state election commission for the conduct of local body elections.