Supreme Court upholds Madras HC order on 3 nominated MLAs of Pondy House

The top court rejected the two appeals challenging the March 22 order of Madras High Court and upheld the nomination of the three legislators. A bench of justices A K Sikri, Ashok Bhushan and SA Abdul Nazeer said, “We uphold the impugned judgment of the Madras High Court”.

It may be recalled that Congress MLA Dhanalaxmi Narayan had challenged the nominations in the Madras High Court, but her plea was turned down. Subsequently, the party filed an appeal in the Supreme Court.

The top court refused to stay the High Court’s order but reserved the case on November 15.

On July 19, the apex court had asked the Puducherry Assembly Speaker to allow the three nominated BJP leaders to function as MLAs and refused to stay the order of the Madras High Court.

The top court while upholding the HC order made it clear that the court said that the Lieutenant Governor, a representative of the Centre, need not consult the local government on such appointments.

The High Court had upheld the nomination of BJP members, V Saminathan, K G Shankar and S Selvaganapathy to the Assembly by the Centre and their swearing-in by Lt Governor Kiran Bedi on July 4 last year.

The Puducherry Assembly has 30 elected and three nominated members. In July, the Centre nominated three persons, two BJP leaders and a party sympathiser, to the territorialassembly.

Lieutenant Governor Bedi administered the oath of office to the three nominated members, V Saminathan, KG Shankar and S Selvaganapathy at the Raj Nivas.

Opposing the move, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy charged the Centre and the LG of interfering in the affairs of the elected government and its powers.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal, appearing for the ruling Congress party in Puducherry, had argued that the names of nominated members should be recommended by the union territory government.

However, the final decision on the nominated members should be taken by the CentralGovernment.

Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court decision, for validating the nomination of three members to the territorial Assembly by the Union Home Ministry.

In a WhatsApp message, Bedi said, “Exceedingly grateful and happy to see the judgement passed by the supreme court validating the nomination of three members to the Puducherry Legislative Assembly by the Government of India as per Law. We thank the three MLAs for their forbearance as they went through many unpleasant situations, sometimes highly disrespectful, to finally achieve this judgement today. In the end law prevailed and upheld.” They can now serve for the prosperity of Puducherry as a whole, she added.

Expressing happiness over the judgement of the Apex Court, BJP state president V Saminathan who himself is a nominated member, said, the Congress government should function within the frame work of law.

Meanwhile, refusing to comment on the judgement, speaker V Vaithilingam said that he would air his views only after getting the full details of the judgement. Chief minister V Narayanasamy also said that he has the same views expressed by the speaker. The three were denied permission to enter the Assembly premises, till the Supreme Court intervened and directed to allow them in. However, it was temporarily till the disposal of the case in the supreme court.