A HC bench was hearing a petition seeking that the appointments of the 3 MLAs be declared as unconstitutional
The Madras High Court on Thursday upheld the Centre's notification appointing three nominated MLAs to the Puducherry Legislative Assembly.
The first bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar dismissed the writ petition filed against the nominations made by the Centre to the Puducherry Assembly without taking consent of the council of Ministers headed by Chief Minister V Narayanaswamy, and said Speaker V Vaithilingam was not right in refusing to accept those nominations.
The writ petitions were filed with a plea to declare the appointments as unconstitutional and consequently quash a gazette notification published by the Centre on July 4, 2017, nominating Bharatiya Janata Party Puducherry unit chief V Saminathan, its treasurer KG Shankar, and educationist S Selva Ganapathy to the Assembly.
The Centre's decision to appoint three MLAs on the nomination of Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi sparked off a mini constitutional crisis in the Union Territory with the Congress government headed by Narayanaswamy called it a back door entry of the BJP while the Speaker refused to accept the nomination.
The judges dismissed two writ petitions,one filed by Narayanaswamy's Parliamentary Secretary K. Lakshminarayanan and another by S. Dhanalakshmi, against the nominations.
Responding to the High Court ruling, Lieutenant Governor Bedi said the appointment of nominated MLAs would strengthen the democracy. "Strengthens democracy. Improves the debate. Increases governance accountability, also increases ground work for people through three more MLAs, "she said.
Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said the government would respond after studying the judgement. "Petitioners are free to appeal against the HC order", he said. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Chief Minister, K Lakshminarayanan, too echoed his views and said the government would appeal against the order in the Supreme Court.
CRISIS SO FAR
- A HC bench was hearing a petition seeking that the appointments of the 3 MLAs be declared as unconstitutional.
- The Speaker at Puducherry Assembly had refused to accept the nominations.
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