Judge seeks clarity on L-G’s nomenclature

An interesting issue cropped up in the course of hearing of the case pertaining to the nominated MLAs of Puducherry before the Madras High Court on Thursday.

Mr. Justice M. Sundar, who along with Chief Justice Indira Banerjee, was hearing the case, wanted to know under what authority was the administrator of Puducherry referred to as Lieutenant Governor. The judge pointed out that Article 239 of the Constitution states that every union territory shall be administered by the President through an “administrator” to be appointed by him with such designation as he may specify.

The judge wanted to know if there was any notification designating the administrator of Puducherry as Lieutenant Governor since all government communications had used the latter expression.

Notification

Replying to it, Additional Solicitor General G. Rajagopalan produced a copy of a notification and said the administrators of Andaman and Nicobar, Delhi and Puducherry alone were referred to as Lieutenant Governors whereas those of all other union territories were just referred as administrators.

Senior counsel V.T. Gopalan, representing one of the public interest litigation petitioners who had challenged the three nominations by the Centre, informed the court that till recently, the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry was administered oath of office only by the Chief Judge of Puducherry and not by the Chief Justice of Madras High Court.

“It is only for the past two or three swearing in ceremonies that the Chief Justice of this court has been administering the oath to the Puducherry Governor,” Mr. Gopalan added.