The Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, Indira Banerjee, on Friday recused herself from hearing a public interest litigation petition seeking a direction to the Union Home Ministry to recall Kiran Bedi from the office of the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry on the ground that her functioning “was in flagrant violation of the oath of office taken by her.”
When the case came up before the first Division Bench, also comprising Justice Abdul Quddhose, although senior counsel AR.L. Sundaresan replied that he had no objection to arguing the matter before it, the Chief Justice recused herself from hearing it. She asked the High Court Registry to list the case before the Division Bench of Justices C.T. Selvam and N. Sathish Kumar next week.
T. Murugan, 63, a State Committee member of the Communist Party of India (CPI), had filed the PIL plea.
He claimed that the actions of Ms. Bedi affected the people of the Union Territory at large and so he had approached the court.
Making it clear that he was someone who was committed to the idea that ornamental offices continuing since the British era only end up wasting the tax payers’ money, the petitioner recalled that he had filed a case in 2011 too to issue a writ of quo warranto against the then L-G but that case became infructuous after the latter demitted office.
He pointed out that of all Constitutional posts, Administrator (or L-G as the post was referred to in so far as Puducherry was concerned) of a Union Territory was the only post for which no qualification whatsoever was prescribed though the holder of the post exercises powers akin to the Governor of a State.
Stating that Ms. Bedi was appointed to the post on May 29, 2016, the petitioner said: “Right from the day of assumption of office, the third respondent [Ms. Bedi] had not respected the Constitution, the separation of powers and the procedures prescribed under it and has miserably failed to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.”
The petitioner levelled several allegations against Ms. Bedi including nepotism in appointments to public posts, overturning the decisions taken by the elected government of the union territory and setting up an advocate to file a PIL petition in the High Court alleging irregularities in medical admissions in the union territory.
She was functioning in an “autocratic manner with an one point agenda to increase her publicity rating and as an optical strategist to show case to the people that she and she alone is doing good, the petitioner added. Providing fodder to the press and the media alone is what is achieved [by her] and governance and welfare of people have completely failed in Puducherry,” he added.
