A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court to declare as illegal a notification issued by the Union Home Ministry on May 10 nominating three MLAs to the Puducherry Legislative Assembly.
G.A. Jagaannathan, an agriculturist from Puducherry, has filed the case on the ground that the credentials of all three individuals nominated by the Centre were questionable and that the nominated MLAs should be men of eminence.
The petitioner said that the Puducherry Assembly is constituted with 30 elected MLAs and three nominated MLAs. In the recently held elections, All India NR Congress emerged as the single largest party with 10 MLAs followed by BJP with six MLAs.
The single largest party was called upon to form the government with the support of the BJP MLAs and an independent MLA. N. Rangasamy was sworn in as Chief Minister of the Union Territory on May 7. Thereafter, the Chief Minister tested positive for COVID-19 and got admitted in a private hospital in Chennai.
This had led to delay in the swearing in of other MLAs. Yet, the six BJP MLAs began to attend official events and the Centre also nominated three more MLAs, the petitioner said and urged the court to declare the nomination as illegal.
