Puducherry State Assembly Secretary A Vincent Rayar, on Tuesday, invited the three BJP MLAs who were nominated by Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi to participate in the Assembly proceedings. The Puducherry Assembly is set to reconvene on Wednesday.
The three MLAs invited by the Secretary are BJP President V Saminathan, KG Shankar and S Selvaganapathy.
The Supreme Court had earlier upheld the nomination of the MLAs by Kiran Bedi without consulting with the Chief Minister V Narayanasamy. The court had also stated that it expected the Speaker of the Assembly to allow the nominated MLAs to participate in the Assembly proceedings.
According to reports, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, who also holds the finance portfolio, will present the Budget Appropriation bill in the Assembly, which will be passed after discussion. The Puducherry Assembly was indefinitely adjourned on July 19, after the Lt Governor delayed granting assent to the Budget Appropriation bill. It had put the Puducherry government in a fix since the salaries of the government employees could not be disbursed unless the Budget is approved by the Lt Governor.
Lt Governor Kiran Bedi had signed the bill on July 21 on the condition that the nominated MLAs would be allowed to participate in the Budget session as per the apex court’s observations.
The nomination of MLAs by Kiran Bedi without consulting the Chief Minister had irked the Puducherry government, which moved the Madras High Court against the nomination in July 2017. The Madras High Court upheld the nomination and stated that such nomination by the Lt Governor is legally valid.
The Puducherry government then appealed in the Supreme Court against the order of the High Court which upheld the former’s order.