The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday put off to April 28 the hearing on the petition filed by Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar challenging the Ordinance amending the AP Panchayat Raj Act, 1994, which cut short his tenure as SEC from five-year tenure to three years.

Ramesh Kumar had also challenged the appointment of retired Madras High Court judge Kanaga Raju was appointment as unconstitutional. In the petition, Ramesh Kumar argued that the government did not give genuine reasons or justifiable ground for its sudden decision to remove him and that the government had abused its power with the sole intention to shunt him out of the top post just because he had postponed the elections in light of the corona threat.

In the petition, Ramesh Kumar noted that the manner in which the government reduced the tenure of SEC amounted to encroaching upon the independence of the constitutional body.

On its part, the government countered Ramesh Kumar’s argument asserting that the ordinance amending the AP Panchayat Raj Act was issued as part of electoral reforms. The State government contended that the Ordinance was issued under Article 243 (K) of the Constitution. The government contended that under Article 243 (K) (2), tenure of the SEC doesn’t come under service conditions and argued that it was well within its rights to take a decision on the SEC.

The court hearing the arguments posted the matter to April 28 asking the government to file additional counter by April 24. The petitioners were asked to file their objections by April 27 to the additional counter filed by the state government. A batch of petitions were filed by TDP and BJP leaders challenging the state government’s decision to remove Ramesh Kumar.