The Puducherry Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian union territory (UT) of Puducherry, which comprises four districts: Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahé and Yanam. The legislative assembly has 33 seats, of which 5 are reserved for candidates from scheduled castes and 3 members are nominated by the Government of India. 30 out of 33 Members are elected directly by the people on the basis of universal adult franchise.
Pondicherry Assembly seats
Geographically, the area under the Puducherry UT consists of three disjointed regions, with Puducherry and Karaikal districts surrounded by districts of Tamil Nadu, Yanam district an enclave of East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, and Mahé district bordered by districts of Kerala. The four districts were ruled by French before they were integrated into India in 1962. For ease of administration, during French rule, the area under these four districts was divided into 39 assembly constituencies. After becoming a UT of India, Puducherry was divided into 30 assembly constituencies, which were restructured in 2005 by the Delimitation Commission of India.
In 1946, French India (Inde française) became Overseas territory (Territoire d'outre-mer) of France.
Then a Representative Assembly (Assemblée représentative) was created. Thus, in 1946, on 25 October, the representative assembly of 44 members has replaced the general council (conseil général).[1] The Representative Assembly had 44 seats until merger of Chandernagore in 1951. Later, it reduced to 39 seats.
Merger and formation of Union Territory
The French government transferred the four enclaves to the Indian Union under a de facto treaty on 1 November 1954.[2] Later the territory was merged with India on 16 August 1962.
On 10 May 1963, the Indian Parliament enacted the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963 that came into force on 1 July 1963. This introduced the same pattern of government that prevailed in the rest of the country, but subject to certain limitations.[3] Under Article 239 of the Indian Constitution, the President of India appoints an Administrator LG with such designation as he may specify to head the administration of the territory. The President also appoints the Chief Minister. The President, on the advice of the Chief Minister, appoints the other Ministers. The Union Territories Act, 1963 limits the number of elected members of the assembly to 30 and allows the central government to appoint not more than 3 nominated MLAs. The same act ensures that seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes in the legislative assembly.
The Representative Assembly was converted into the Legislative Assembly of Pondicherry on 1 July 1963 as per Section 54(3) of The Union Territories Act, 1963[3] and its members were deemed to have been elected to the Assembly.[4]: 966 Thus, the First Legislative Assembly was formed without an election. Elections for the assembly have been held since 1964.
Name
Puducherry has 5 official languages, namely, French,[note 1] Tamil; Telugu (in Yanam), Malayalam (in Mahe) and English.[5] In each of these languages, the Legislative Assembly is referred as below
Telugu: పుదుచ్చేరి శాసనసభ (IAST:puducceri śāsanasabha)
Malayalam: പുതുച്ചേരി നിയമസഭ (IAST:puducceri niyamasabha)
English: Puducherry Legislative Assembly
Governance
The Centre is represented by the Lt Governor, who resides at the Raj Niwas, Rangapillai Street, the former palace of the French Governor General of Puducherry. The Central government is more directly involved in the financial well-being of the territory, as against the states where financial administration, given a budgeted central grant is the responsibility to the state governments. Consequently, Puducherry has at various times, enjoyed lower taxes, especially in the indirect category.
Constituencies
Constituency map
The structure of the Puducherry Legislature is unicameral. The Legislative Assembly consists of 33 members. People directly elect 30 Members of the Legislative Assembly on the basis of adult franchise.
In terms of the provisions of the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963 the normal tenure of the Assembly is five years, unless sooner dissolved. There are 16 Committees in the Assembly.
Parliamentary and assembly constituencies of Puducherry were redesigned by Delimitation Commission of India based on data obtained in 2001 census of India.[6] On 4 January 2008, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) decided to implement the order from the Delimitation Commission.[7] In addition, three members can be nominated to the assembly by the central government.[8]
After 1963 Delimitation
As per The Union Territories Act, 1963, thirty members would be elected through direct suffrage.[9][10]
Before the Elections to constitute the First Pondicherry Legislative Assembly were held in August 1964, the constituencies were delimited by the Delimitation Commission (as per Delimitation Commission Act, 1962) and the entire territory was divided into 30 single-member constituencies-21 for Pondicherry region, 6 for Karaikal region, 2 for Mahe region and 1 for Yanam region. Out of these 5 seats were reserved for Scheduled Castes,[10] four in Pondicherry region and one in Karaikal region.[4]: 965
Before delimitation of 2008
The Puducherry Legislative Assembly has 30 constituencies. Out of them 21 constituencies belong to Puducherry, Karaikal has 6 in number, Mahé has 2 in number and Yanam has a single constituency.
Puducherry was divided among these 21 assembly constituencies: Muthialpet, Cassicade, Raj Bhavan, Bussy, Oupalam, Orleampeth, Nellithope, Modeliarpeth, Ariankuppam, Embalom (SC), Nettapakkam, Kuruvinatham, Bahour (SC), Thirubuvanai (SC), Mannadipeth, Ossudu (SC), Villenour, Ozhukarai, Thattanchavady, Reddiarpalayam and Lawspet.
Area under Karaikal district was divided among the following 6 assembly constituencies: Cotchery, Karaikal, Karaikal South, Neravy-Grand Alde, Tirunallar and Neduncadu (SC).
Assembly constituencies of Mahé and Palloor were from Mahé district. The Yanam district formed a single assembly constituency, i.e. Yanam.
