HC reserves order on Puducherry Minister's plea over appointment of SEC

The Madras High Court on Thursday reserved orders on a PIL filed by a Puducherry Minister challenging formulation of a selection process for appointment of State Election Commissioner to the union territory by Lt Governor Kiran Bedi.

A division bench of justices M Sathyanarayanan and R Hemalatha reserved orders on the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Local Administration Minister A Namassivayam after conclusion of arguments by counsel for the petitioner and Bedi.

Earlier, Bedi defended formulation of the selection process, saying the Centre's order cannot be questioned by as the union territory is governed through an administrator as per law. Her counsel said as per law enacted by the Parliament, every Union Territory shall be administered by the President acting, to such extent as he thinks fit, through an administrator to be appointed by him with such designation as he may specify.

Hence, the order of the central government to appoint the SEC through a free and fair process cannot be questioned by the Council of Ministers, it was submitted. The matter relates to the appointment of retired IAS officer T M.Balakrishannan as the SEC by the Puducherry Council of Ministers on May 25, 2018 for conduct of local body polls.

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The Lt Governor did not approve the appointment and in December last year quashed it as 'null and void ab initio' and formulated the scheme for filling the post and gave a newspaper advertisement calling for applications.

She had then said the Centre had directed the Puducherry government to fill the post through a selection committee in "a transparent, competent and fair manner."

In his petition, the Minister sought to declare the LG's order as unconstitutional, arbitrary and ultra vires of the Constitution.

Senior counsel Satish Parasaran, appearing for the petitioner, aruged that local governnance, a state subject, is placed under Entry 5 of List II of Schedule VII of Constitution and the business of Government of Puducherry relating to the administration of Local Bodies including elections is placed under the Local Administration Department.

He further contended that the direction of the LG in prescribing qualifications and constituting Selection Committee suffered from lack of jurisdiction and ran contrary to existing rules in force.

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