The Madras High Court today upheld the appointment of three BJP members to the Puducherry Assembly who were nominated by Lt Governor Kiran Bedi last year.
The nomination of the three BJP members in July last year had intensified the rift between Bedi and the Congress government. Their nomination were cancelled by Puducherry Assembly Speaker V Vaithilingam later.
A bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar today passed the order upholding their nomination.
It held as invalid the speaker's order cancelling the nomination of the MLAs.
Reacting to the verdict, Bedi said it has strengthened democracy. "My response to the judgment in MLAs case - this strengthens democracy, improves the debate, increases governance and accountability and also increases good work for people through three more MLAs."
In their petitions, the MLAs - V Saminathan, K G Shankar and S Selvaganapathi, had challenged the notice issued by the assembly secretary refusing them permission to attend House proceedings.
The secretary had said that according to the speaker's decision the nominations were not valid.
The speaker had held as void their nomination saying it was made by an "incompetent authority" and in contravention of the constitutional provisions.
Besides the petitioners, Congress MLA K Lakshminarayanan had filed a petition challenging their nomination. He had submitted that the BJP legislators were "nominated through the backdoor" by violating constitutional provisions.
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