Put in place

 It was a big blow against Puducherry Lieutenant Government Kiran Bedi when the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court ruled that the duly elected government has powers over service matters and cancelled two clarification issued by the NDA government at the centre in 2017 through two orders in response to clarifications sought by Ms Bedi. The Centre had stated that the Lieutenant Governor has powers to act independently and is not bound by the council of ministers. The Madras High Court made it clear that an elected government has constitutional powers in Puducherry and that the Lieutenant Governor cannot interfere in daily affairs. In response to the ruling of the Madras High Court, Bedi wrote an open letter to the people of the union territory listing her achievements. Ms.Kiran Bedi has been at loggerheads with the Congress government led by chief minister V.Narayanasamy over who calls the shots over functioning of the government in the state during the past three years. Kiran Bedi has trying to derail the powers and functions of the elected government by intervening in crucial matters. She used to personally summon senior bureaucrats and also delayed clearance of welfare schemes and bypassed the elected government over administrative matters. Whatever be the achievements claimed, these cannot justify interferences over the clear constitutional powers of an elected government. As an appointee of the BJP government, Kiran Bedi had made no bones about what her mission in Puducherry- putting hurdles over the Congress government under Narayanasamy. Her weekly visits to government institutions and holding durbars with senior government bureaucrats left no doubt that she wanted to run the state as she deemed fit. Matters came to such a head that in February this year, Chief Minister Narayanasamy had held a sit-in outside Ms Bedi’s official residence for a week, demanding her removal over several issues including the rule making wearing helmets compulsory for motorists. Bedi had thrown herself headlong into the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement led by Anna Hazare which was primarily directed against the Congress-led UPA government. She later joined BJP and fought the elections as chief ministerial candidate. She lost the election and the BJP suffered a massive defeat at the hands of the AAP. The constitution is clear that the Lieutenant Governor or a Governor, acts under the advice of the council of ministers. Even in Delhi, the Lieutenant Governor has been at loggerheads with the AAP government under Arvind Kejriwal on almost every issue. In a slap to the BJP government at the Centre, on July 4 last year, the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court held that the Lieutenant-General of the Delhi had to act as per the aid and advise of the Council of Ministers of Delhi Government except in matters of land, police and public order. It held that the LG cannot interfere in each and every decision of the Delhi Government. If, for example, the president of India were to do to the Modi government what the Lieutenant Governors of Delhi and Puducherry did to the AAP and Congress governments; one can only imagine what would be the reaction. Any party that seeks to circumvent and destroy constitutional norms and ethics cannot claim to be democratic- be it BJP or Congress and thank God for the courts.