Puducherry power fray: SC notice to lawmaker on plea against Madras High Court order

The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to Puducherry lawmaker K Lakshminarayanan on an appeal filed by the Union Territory's Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi against Madras High Court's order which curtailed her authority to act independently of the elected government. A division bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna heard the plea by Kiran Bedi, who moved the top court challenging High Court's order.

In April, acting on the petition filed by Congress' Lakshminarayanan, the High Court ruled that the LG doesn't 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". In his petition, the lawmaker had sought quashing of two clarifications issued by the Union Home Ministry regarding powers of the LG.

Bedi, in her defence, contended that the governance in the Union Territory came to a standstill following the order limiting her powers. On May 3, the former top cop wrote an open letter to the residents of Puducherry and detailed several initiatives started by her for providing "better administration".

"I took all possible measures of financial prudence to save Puducherry from falling in a debt trap and that the administration observes financial discipline in managing its over Rs. 7500 crore budget for its 14 lakh population by strictly following General Financial Rules as approved by President Of India," Bedi wrote. She opined that these practices if sustained will favour the prosperity of the Union Territory.

"It does not matter who does and how much? Key is that we do and the needs are met. Ideally, all work together to give people holistic good administration. People have to be served. Their needs cannot wait," she added. 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 outside Raj Niwas in protest of the LG's decisions. (ANI)

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