New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday refused to interfere with the Andhra Pradesh Election Commissioner’s decision to hold panchayat polls during the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination drive, as it dismissed the state government’s appeal challenging the poll notification.
A bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul observed that the appeal illustrated an “ego battle” between the two authorities, and that the court cannot be a part of it.
“We cannot take over jobs of everyone. There are some political and administrative decisions. Some decisions are also taken by the Election Commission. This makes me feel this is not an issue, it is something else,” Justice Kaul observed.
The bench, also comprising Justice Hrishikesh Roy, frowned upon employees of the state poll body for passing resolutions against the commissioner. “Your behaviour is atrocious and undesirable,” the bench remarked.
The Jagan Reddy government had approached the top court to put on hold the panchayat polls amid the vaccination drive going on in the state. Senior advocate Mukul Rohagti, appearing for the state, challenged the division bench order of the HC that allowed elections to be held.
He informed the court that about 5 lakh people are to get vaccinated, including police personnel.
“How can such polls happen? Even Goa deferred elections,” Rohatgi argued. He said the state can commence elections on 1 March.
“By 28 January the frontline workers will be vaccinated. It is not for the HC to find out whether elections and vaccination can happen together or not. Can I tell the police to give up vaccine drive and conduct elections?”
The bench, however, did not approve of the state’s conduct, saying it approached the court whenever an election was proposed. “The State Election Commission has to hold the elections,” it remarked.
‘Ego problem between authorities’
The staff of state election commission came under criticism for passing resolutions against the election commissioner. Rohatgi, however, distanced himself from the controversy, saying the state had nothing to do with it.
“Ego problem between two authorities is leading to lawlessness. We cannot allow lawlessness. How can resolutions be passed against N. Ramesh Kumar (the state election commissioner)?” the bench noted.
Justice Kaul cited the example of Kerala to highlight that elections have taken place amid the pandemic. “Even Kerala did and there is a spike there now, but we cannot say that polls were a reason for it,” the judge said.
It went on to snub intervenors, including some doctors, who filed applications in support of the state government’s appeal to defer the polls.
“All these intervenors are giving more credence to our views. All these doctors, bureaucrats make us believe in our order. We will dismiss this,” the bench said.
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It is the job of the judiciary to examine whether a plea has legal standing and merit not to speculate on the motives behind the case. The judiciary has gone to the dogs. Everyday it hits a new low.