HC admits plea against Bedi in SEC appointment row

A division bench comprising Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice R Hemalatha before whom submissions transpired on Tuesday admitted the plea and posted it for further hearing to January 31, when interim orders are likely.

Stating that the present case is a product of another act of the administrator of running a parallel government ignoring the elected government, Namassivayam submitted that the Constitutional convention regards appointment of SEC across various States and Union Territories in India are uniform.

The Centre and state appointed independent and impartial election commissioners for the conduct of free and fair elections. No applications are invited from the public at large in a manner as has been done by the Lt Governor wherein the decision appears to have been taken based on her personal predilections in seeking to invite applications for the post of SEC, he said.

He also pointed out that as the appointment of SEC a state subject, the exercise of the said function by the Lt Governor must necessarily be executed under the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers. When the Council of Ministers had consciously decided on the choice of person for appointment of SEC, the same is binding upon the Lt Governor, more particularly in the absence of any valid reference to the president based on the difference of opinion.

He also noted that scheme engineered by Kiran Bedi overthrowing the duly appointed incumbent SEC TM Balakrishnan is only with a malafide intention of accommodating G Theva Neethi Dhas, her official advisor, as SEC under the guise of fair and transparent process, besides abuse and misuse of power constitutes a fraud on the Constitution and a mockery on the rule of law.