Kiran Bedi hails Madras HC decision to uphold 3 MLA appointments

Lieutenant governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi hailed the Madras High Court's decision of accepting the appointment of three members of the Puducherry legislative assembly.

"It strengthens democracy, it strengthens and increases the presence in the Legislative Assembly. It also encourages more debate", Kiran Bedi said.

The Madras High Court on Thursday upheld the appointment of three MLA, declaring the nominations to be valid.

The first bench of the High Court had passed a ruling saying as per Section 14(3) of the Union Territories Act the jurisdiction of a Union Territory lies with the Central Government and even the public does not have the right to stand against them.

3 MLAs- namely V. Saminathan, President of the Puducherry BJP unit, party Treasurer K.G. Shankar and educationist S. Selva Ganapathy- were nominated by the Lt. Governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi in 2017.

The nominations were later challenged in the High Court by MLA Dhanalakshmi Narayan on the grounds that the appointments were done without consulting the Chief Minister of Puducherry.

As per advocate Ravichandran, who represented MLA Dhanalakshmi Narayan, the nominations were challenged to be invalid as no consultative process was followed by the Council of Ministers as per Section 44 of the Union Territories Act.

"My client who is a public under-secretary filed a requisition in the public interest. In accordance with the Union Territories 1963 Act (the), Central government has to read as the representative of India. She filed that the appointing authorities only represent India with respect to Union Territory as the Govt. of India and the public does not have the right to stand against them." Ravichandran told ANI.

On the other hand Lawyer, V Venkatesh who represented the Union Government, said that as per the ruling by the High Court the Lieutenant Governor of a Union Territory has the right to nominate the MLAs in their state.

"In the matter, I stand for the Ministry of Home Affairs. Two requisitions were filed by MLA Lakshmi Narayan and another woman. They were dismissed and the nominations have been declared as invalid by the Chief Justice and Justice MN Sundaram as per Govt. of Union Territories Act 1963 239 and 239 (a) Sec 333. The acts say the administrator or the Lieutenant Governor has the power to nominate and also administer the oath", Venkatesh told ANI.

Earlier in 2017, Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi had defended herself by saying that the three MLAs were nominated and administered the oath as per the law and blamed Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy for launching a misleading campaign over it.