Madras High Court recommendations can clear grey areas'

Chennai: Pointing out that the ambiguities and larger principles which have been brought into sharp focus in 3 nominated MLAs case deserve the attention of the lawmakers, the Madras High Court has made four recommendations for consideration by Parliament.

The First Bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M. Sundar said, “In the light of the controversies raised before us and elaborate submissions made before us, considering the importance of the matter and in the light of the fact that some aspects of this case are unprecedented, we deem it appropriate to make some recommendations for consideration by the Parliament”.

The Recommendations are:

1) A clear and unambiguous procedure has to be laid down for the nomination of MLAs to the Puducherry Legislative Assembly, with particular clarity about where it should emanate from and how it should be carried to its logical end.

2) It has to be laid down with specificity as to who/which office will actually exercise the powers of nominations under section 3 (3) of the UT Act eliminating the need to resort to an inferential process which has become necessary in the instant case.

3) Qualifications, qualities and credentials which will go to make a ‘well-rounded personality’ for qualifying for being nominated as an MLA have to be set out. “To be noted, we are not on ‘eligibility’ or ‘educational qualification’. We are on ‘suitability’ ”.

4) If the nominated MLA belongs to a political party on the date of nomination, it should be made clear that he shall become part of the legislature party of that political party.If there is no legislature party in the house on the date of nomination, the nominated MLAs shall constitute the legislature party of that political party. This is inter-alia owing to explanation (b) to paragraph 2 (1) (b) of the Tenth Schedule to COI using the term ‘political party’ and not ‘legislature party’.“We conclude with the fervent hope that our recommendations lead to necessary statutory amendments/statutory enactments that are deemed necessary by Parliament in its wisdom. If deemed necessary in Parliamentary wisdom, Constitutional amendments can also be considered”, the bench added.