No relief for three nominated MLAs in Puducherry

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar made the observation while passing interim orders on the PILs questioning the validity of the provisions, which enabled the Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi to nominate three BJP office-bearers, V Saminathan, K G Shankar, and S Selvaganapathy, as members of the Puducherry Assembly. The other two PILs are from Congress MLA Lakshmi Narayanan.

Along with this, the three nominated MLAs have moved a plea challenging the Speaker order that their nomination had been done by an incompetent authority and hence void. 

While the first bench heard the case both in the morning and afternoon session, the hearing is set to continue on Thursday and subsequently on Friday following which the orders are expected to come through. 

The arguments against the nomination dwelt on the aspect that the nomination notification suffered from serious constitutional infirmity. The counsel appearing for the nominated MLAs questioned the powers available with the Speaker to debar the MLAs nominated by the Centre from entering the assembly. The Puducherry assembly session is set to commence on Thursday.