Madras HC curbs Lt. Governor's powers, says Kiran Bedi can't interfere in Puducherry government's everyday affairs

The court said the administrative and financial powers are with the elected government and the Lt.Governor has to act as per the advice of the council of Ministers.

Published: 30th April 2019 01:00 PM 

Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi (File | EPS)

By Siva Sekaran

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Holding that the Council of Ministers is the supreme body, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Tuesday clipped the extra powers granted to Lieutenant-Governor Kiran Bedi by the Centre. The court’s decision has come as a big boost for the Puducherry government, which has been at loggerheads with Bedi over a wide range of administrative issues.

“The Administrator cannot interfere in the day-to-day affairs of the government. The decision taken by the Council of Ministers and the Chief Minister is binding on the secretaries and other officials. The Centre as well as the Administrator should be true to the concept of democratic principles,” the bench said. “Otherwise, the country’s Constitutional scheme of being democratic and republic would be defeated.”

Justice R Mahadevan further added: “The Administrator (L-G) has no exclusive authority to run the administration in derogation of the constitutional principles and the parliamentary laws governing the issue.” The judge was allowing a writ petition from K Lakshminarayanan, Puducherry MLA and also parliamentary secretary to the Chief Minister, who is directly in charge of the relationship between the Union Territory and the Centre.


He sought to quash the two communications from the Home Ministry, which had allegedly granted more powers to L-G. The judge held that the Union Territory of Puducherry had legislative powers to enact laws with respect to all matters enumerated in the State and Concurrent Lists as per the Constitution.

‘Difference can be referred to Prez, Centre’

The Puducherry legislative body enjoys power similar to that of a ‘State’ and the authority of the Administrator remains intact with regard to exercise of discretion under certain circumstances when the Assembly is not functioning or when a reference is bonafide required.The Administrator is bound by the advice of the Council of Ministers in matters where the Assembly is competent to enact laws though he/she is empowered to differ with the Council based on some rationale which raises a fundamental issue regarding the action of government.

A legitimate and warranted policy decision of the Council after deliberation is expected not to be interfered with... The scope of such difference can utmost end only in a reference to the President or the Central government, and by no stretch of imagination or interpretation, the provisions enable the Administrator to reject any Bill, the judge said.Administrator can do posting of officers under IAS in consonance with Article 320 of the Constitution, the judge said.

‘Studying verdict’

Lt Governor said the judgement was being examined, following which a view would be taken. Bedi also cited an earlier judgment of the Madras HC and said “L-G of the UT has powers to act independently”

CM Happy

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on Tuesday said the judgement was a victory for the people of the Union Territory (UT)

Vacancy for junior research fellow
The three-year project is being funded by the Department of Science and Technology , Government of India.

Published: 30th April 2019 03:24 AM 

By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Vacancy for a junior research fellow is available for a research project ‘Taxonomic studies on Cyprinoid fishes of northern Kerala with emphasis on synonymic and insufficiently-known species’.


The three-year project is being funded by the Department of Science and Technology , Government of India. Qualification required is MSc Zoology and NET or MPhil. The interview will be held on Thursday at Baby John Memorial Government College. For details, contact Mathew Plamootil. Phone no: 9447059690

Jet, Etihad ordered to pay Rs 1.25 lakh for misplacing woman’s luggage

Jayanthi Rajvi, the woman, had flown to Zurich in Switzerland for quick getaway.

Published: 29th April 2019 08:03 AM |

Etihad had identified that over 95 single-use plastic products were being used across its aircraft cabins.

By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: INDIA’S oldest private airline, Jet Airways, has been going through a rather harrowing year. Due to mounting debt, the airline had recently even released a statement that they have now run out of money to continue operations.

The troubles don’t seem to end there. The airlines, and its partner airlines Etihad, was recently sued by a city-based businesswoman for misplacing her luggage. The district consumer forum slapped a fine of `1.25 lakh on the carrier for failing to deliver the luggage at the destination.

Jayanthi Rajvi, the woman, had flown to Zurich in Switzerland for quick getaway. However, once she arrived in the country, she found that her bags weren’t there. She waited for two hours for luggage that never came. She later complained with Etihad Airways but the response she got was unsatisfactory.

Rajvi did not get anything but 35 Swiss Franc for expenses. Since she had none of the clothes she had packed for her six-day stay, she depended on her friend’s wardrobe, Rajvi told the forum. It was only after the vacation had ended, and when she came back to Hyderabad, that Rajvi was given her luggage back.

Meanwhile, the airlines said that the passenger had not performed a valuation of the luggage.

Representatives of Etihad argued they gave 35 Franc as mandated by the Montreal Convention since no valuation figure was provided. Jet Airways also said Rajvi could have fraudulently transferred the contents beforehand. However, barring all allegation, Consumer Forum - 3 said there was deficiency in service. It ordered the airlines to pay $1,500 at `69.85 per US Dollar and another `20,000 towards court charges.

Foreigners Regional Registration Office: 801 foreigners overstaying in Bengaluru
According to the city police commissioner, as many as 801 foreigners are overstaying in Bengaluru city and Bengaluru rural district.

Published: 01st May 2019 06:49 AM |

By Express News Service

BENGALURU: According to the city police commissioner, as many as 801 foreigners are overstaying in Bengaluru city and Bengaluru rural district. The police commissioner informed Karnataka High Court after receiving statistics from the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO).

The FRRO informed the police commissioner that proposals for Lookout Circular (LOC) has been issued. Leave India Notices have also been issued to overstaying foreigners. "Every month jurisdictional police is informed of the list of overstaying foreign nationals in their respective jurisdiction, with information to the police commissioner, Bengaluru city, concerned DCPs and Superintendent of Police of respective districts," the police commissioner stated in the information furnished to the court, and also pointed out that 57 foreigners are untraceable.

This information was furnished by FRRO after Justice Aravind Kumar directed the state to furnish the details of those persons who have stayed on either student visa or other visas, and have not returned to their respective countries even after the visa expired. The court had issued this direction after hearing the petition filed by Hossie Bikandou Sidney. He accused the police of being falsely implicated in the case. He said there was an inordinate delay in the trial. Meanwhile, Sidney will return to his native, Congo on May 7. The court also quashed the criminal proceedings against him who has paid a fine Rs 28,000.

Madras High Court summer vacation from tomorrow

The summer vacation for the Madras High Court and its bench at Madurai will begin on May 1.

Published: 30th April 2019 05:39 AM

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: The summer vacation for the Madras High Court and its bench at Madurai will begin on May 1. It will re-open on June 3 (Monday). Following are the vacation judges for the principal seat at Chennai: Justices S Vaidyanathan, Subramonium Prasad, N Anand Venkatesh and G K Ilanthiraiyan will sit on May 8 and 9.


Justices C V Karthikeyan, Krishnan Ramaswamy, V Bhavani Subbaroyan and A D Jagadish Chandira on May 15 and 16. Justices RMT Teekka Raman, P D Audikesavalu, P Rajamanickam and C Saravanan on May 22 and 23. For the last part of the vacation, that is, on May 29 and 30, Justices N Sathish Kumar, P T Asha, M Nirmal Kumar and Senthikumar Ramamoorthy will be the vacation judges.

Government doctors to hold demonstrations in June over NEET, PG quota issues

Seek to restore 50% reservation for government service doctors in PG medical admissions

Published: 01st May 2019 06:11 AM

By Sinduja Jane

Express News Service

CHENNAI : Come June, government service doctors may stage series of demonstrations, urging the State government to abolish UG-NEET for MBBS and BDS admissions and also restore 50 per cent reservation for government service doctors in PG medical admissions, after only 43 per cent of medical seats were allotted to the service doctors in the first phase of PG medical counselling this year.

According to the selection committee, “In the first phase of counselling, in all, 999 PG (MD and MS) seats were allotted for government and self-financing colleges; 427 seats were allotted to government service doctors and 572 for non-service doctors. That is, 43 per cent seats were allotted to government service doctors and 57 per cent seats to non-service doctors.

This has disappointed government service doctors. “We will hold various demonstrations from June after our executive council meeting. In the 43 per cent of seats, many government service doctors could get only non-clinical seats and majority of clinical seats went to non-service doctors. If this is the case, then there will be shortage of specialists in public healthcare system, which is already facing shortage of specialities,” said Dr J Kathirvel, secretary, Tamil Nadu Medical Officers Association.


“We seek fulfilment of three demands: Abolition of UG-NEET, restoration of 50 per cent reservation for government service doctors and reservation for service doctors in higher specialities,” added Kathirvel.

In 2017-2018, PG medical course admissions were conducted based on the Medical Council of India’s Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations 2000, and State’s reservation rules were quashed.

However, the non-service government doctors were happy that the State followed MCI rules properly this year. Dr N Karthikeyan, secretary, Non-Governmental Service Doctors Association, said, “We are happy that non-service doctors could get more seats this year. This is how counselling was conducted in other States, but only in Tamil Nadu, the MCI norms were not followed properly in the last two years. The merit has been upheld this time.”

TCS-JSS Tech varsity to offer new course

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

MYSURU, MAY 01, 2019 00:00 IST

Students will be exposed to emerging topics such as Analytics, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence

To address the growing need of engineering talent with skills in digital technology, TCS has designed a curriculum for a 4-year undergraduate programme titled “Computer Science and Business Systems (CSBS)”.

JSS Science and Technology University (formerly SJCE) is the first deemed-to-be-university in Karnataka to offer this course from the year 2019-20.

JSS Science and Technology Universityon Tuesday signed an MoU with TCS to offer the programme to the students in the upcoming batch. The MoU was signed by Registrar, JSS Science and Technology University and Chandra Koduru, Head of Academic Interface Programme of TCS.

The curriculum aims to ensure that the students not only know the core topics of Computer Science but also develop an equal appreciation of humanities, management sciences and human values, according to the university.

The students are exposed to emerging topics such as Analytics, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make them industry ready at the end of four years of study. This curriculum has been approved by the Executive Committee of AICTE and is available in the AICTE drop-down menu of nomenclatures for engineering course.

As part of the MoU, TCS will support JSS Science and Technology University by training and developing its faculty, and organising guest lectures.