The Supreme Court Monday rejected the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy authorities’s plea difficult the choice of the State Election Commission (SEC) to carry native physique polls in Andhra Pradesh in February and attributed the issues to an “ego battle” between authorities.
“Ego problems between two authorities are causing all this…We will not be party to an ego battle”, Justice S Okay Kaul heading a two-judge bench remarked whereas dismissing the state’s plea which sought postponement of the polls on the bottom that the vaccination drive towards Covid-10 was underway.
Appearing for the state authorities, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi contended that lakhs of employees members need to be vaccinated in addition to police personnel and that this could require time. HE identified that Goa too had postponed its election and added that it could possibly start from March 1 by which period the vaccination will likely be over.
However, the court docket was not inclined to grant the request.
Hearing a plea by the state authorities, a single Bench of the HC had suspended the SEC notification to carry the polls in 4 phases in February. On enchantment by the SEC, a Division Bench nevertheless reversed the Single Judge order towards which the state approached the SC.
The AP enchantment questioned the State Election Commissioner N Ramesh Kumar and mentioned he “is not qualified – having no medical expertise – to decide whether Elections ought to be conducted at a time when vaccination drive is on full swing and the effect of elections on (i) the vaccination drive and (ii) the spread of virus”.
The state contended that going forward with the elections as scheduled by the SEC can “put the entire vaccination drive into a disarray and endanger the lives of lakhs of citizens” in addition to placing the police pressure below pressure.
Rubbishing the arguments, the bench additionally comprising Justice Hrishikesh Roy remarked that “ego problem between two authorities is leading to lawlessness. We cannot allow this. How can resolutions be passed against the N Ramesh Kumar? We cannot be a part of this ego battle”.
The court docket identified that polls have been performed in states together with Kerala throughout COVID-19 and that the plea to defer it citing COVID-19 vaccine drive can’t be sustainable.
“We cannot take over the jobs of everyone. There are some political and administrative decisions. Some decisions will be taken by the Election Commission. This makes me feel this is not the issue, it is something else,” noticed Justice Kaul.
The SC additionally identified that the HC Single Judge order doesn’t give any motive for its conclusion towards going forward with the election.
