Kiran Bedi moves Supreme Court against Puducherry CM V Narayanasamy, seeks clarity on role of MPs in elected govt

Puducherry lieutenant-governor Kiran Bedi Tuesday moved the Supreme Court against Chief Minister V Narayanasamy seeking clarity on the authority of the MPs in the elected government in wake of the standoff between Bedi and Narayanasamy. The apex court listed the matter for hearing on Thursday, reported CNN-News18.

While a 3-judge bench is yet to start examining whether L-G or elected Govt has more authority on bureaucrats in #Delhi, #Puducherry L-G @thekiranbedi has now moved #SupremeCourt court for a clarity on control of babus in the wake of standoff between her & CM. Hearing on Thursday

— Utkarsh Anand (@utkarsh_aanand) May 28, 2019

Earlier on 1 May, the Madras High Court had intervened in the matter and clarified that Bedi “cannot interfere” in the day-to-day affairs of the Union Territory. Following the judgment, Narayanasamy had called for Bedi’s resignation for “stalling” development activities. The Puducherry chief minister claimed to have brought Bedi’s interference to the notice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, but to no avail. [caption id=“attachment_4449339” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi. PTI[/caption] “The prime minister always talks about cooperative federalism, but believes in dictatorship,” he said. “The elected government has to run the day-to-day administration of the Union territory and the administrator has no power to interfere in the running of the government,” the chief minister had asserted. Allowing a petition filed by Congress MLA K Laksminarayanan, Justice R Mahadevan had set aside the two communications issued in January and June 2017 by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs “elevating” the power of the administrator. Referring to the Supreme Court judgment on the tussle between Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, the judge had said the restrictions imposed on the Delhi government were not applicable to the government of Puducherry. “Though Puducherry is not a state, the Legislative Assembly will have the same powers as that of a state,” he had said. “This is a historic judgment. This is a slap on the face of the Narendra Modi government and also the administrator, Bedi, who has been behaving in an erratic manner flouting all constitutional norms, denigrating the institution of the administrator and trying to usurp the powers of the elected government,” Narayanasamy had said. “I am thankful to the judge, because for the last two to two-and-a-half years, due to the autocratic, illegal, unconstitutional acts of Bedi, the development activities had been stalled,” the Congress leader said. With inputs from PTI