Chennai: Sitting Congress MLA K. Lakshminarayanan from Puducherry has
approached the Madras High Court to quash an order of the Joint
Secretary to Government of India, the ministry of home affairs, nominating 3 persons as members of the Puducherry Legislative Assembly.
Permitting the petitioner Lakshminarayanan to amend his prayer and to implead the three nominated members as party Respondents, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar
ordered notice to them and posted to June 23, further hearing of the case.
According to Lakshminarayanan, he has filed a petition to restrain the Union government from nominating or filling up the nominated seats of Members of the Puducherry Legislative Assembly without the consultation and choice of the elected government of Puducherry.
However, after taking notice, wilfully and wantonly the Union government was cooking up records as if it has passed an order nominating 3 members to the Puducherry Legislative Assembly prior to the filing of the petition itself.
Even while the matter was pending, the Union government by a notification dated June 23 nominated 3 persons as members of the Puducherry Legislative Assembly.
The said notification was communicated to the Puducherry government for publishing the Gazette and for further proceedings, he added.
He said three members nominated are members of the BJP or its associated organisations.
Thus, through backdoor method, the Union government has now tried to nominate these persons, he added and sought permission to implead them as party Respondents, besides the joint secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs.
The entire exercise was wholly illegal and was an abuse of power, aimed at tilting the balance of power in the assembly, he added.
