SC refuses to intervene Madras HC order against Kiran bedi

The Supreme Court on Friday declined to intervene in the appeals filed by Centre and Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi challenging the Madras High Court order, which had curbed the latter's power to interfere in the day-to-day administration.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked Bedi to approach a division bench of the high court against the order of the Madras High Court.

On April 30, acting on the petition filed by Congress lawmaker K Lakshminarayanan, the Madras High Court had asked Bedi not to interfere in the day-to-day administration of the Union Territory, especially when an elected government is in place.

The court ruled that the lieutenant governor does not have rights to interfere in the daily affairs of the elected government and pressed that incessant interference from her would amount to "running a parallel government".

Bedi, in her defence, contended that the governance in the Union Territory came to a standstill following the order limiting her powers.

Kiran Bedi and Chief Minister V Narayanasamy have been locking horns at several occasions since the former top-cop took the post, with the Congressman even staging a sit-in protest outside Raj Niwas against Bedi's decisions.