In a significant win for Puducherry’s elected Council of Ministers, the Madras High Court on Tuesday ruled that the Lieutenant Governor (LG) does not have the right to interfere in the daily affairs of the elected government.
The order was delivered by Justice R Mahadevan on Tuesday on a petition filed by Puducherry Raj Bhavan MLA K Lakshminarayanan. Justice Mahadevan ordered that the LG is bound by the decisions taken by the Council of Ministers in matters which rests with the legislature of Puducherry.
“The Administrator is bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers in matters where the Legislative Assembly is competent to enact laws as contemplated under Section 44 of the Government of Union Territories Act, 1962 though she is empowered to differ with the views of the Council based on some rationale which raises a fundamental issue regarding the action of the Government,” read the order.
Further, the order addressed the main bone of contention between the MLA and the LG and stated, ”The Administrator cannot interfere in the day to day affairs of the Government. The decision taken by the Council of Ministers and the Chief Minister is binding on the Secretaries and other officials.” It also stated that the Administrator has no exclusive authority to run the administration negating the Constitutional Principles and the Parliamentary Laws governing the issue.
This order comes months after the Chief Minister of Puducherry V Narayanasami had staged a dharna with his Cabinet colleagues outside the residence of LG Kiran Bedi opposing her alleged overreach of powers, which he said interfered in his government’s functioning.
The tussle between Puducherry CM and LG Kiran Bedi
The dispute dates back to 2017 when the row between the Chief Minister of Puducherry V Narayanasami and LG Kiran Bedi was at its peak. While Narayanasami had always maintained that the LG did not have the right to interfere into the daily affairs of the elected government of Puducherry, Kiran Bedi had refuted that stance by saying that she was the administrator of the union territory and hence had the right to conduct meetings and demand document for the decisions taken by the government.
She also had with her, an order passed by the government of India, granting her the rights to ask for documents from the government of Puducherry. Following this, MLA Lakshminarayanan approached the court seeking the quashing of this order that was issued by the government of India.
He had also stated that the fact that the LG was conducting review meetings with officials bypassing the elected government, calling for each and every file even before they are officially circulated to her as per the rules and hierarchy, and conducting inspections and giving on-the-spot orders, amount to running ‘a parallel and diametrically opposite Government within the government’.
During the hearing, LG’s personal secretary had submitted that the law provides special powers to LG and that the administrator of the Union Territory of Puducherry itself is the LG and hence the petition must not be allowed.
Senior advocate P Chidambaram represented K Lakshminarayanan and submitted that LG has the power to interfere only in the rarest of rare decisions of the government and not in the daily affairs of the elected government of Puducherry.
The Union Home Ministry had submitted that the petition filed by the MLA is not maintainable under the law and cannot be filed as a Public Interest Litigation either. It further argued that the MLA was an individual and that he has no interest (locus standi) in filing this petition.