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. Out of eight union territories of India, only three have legislatures and they are Delhi[note 1], Puducherry[note 2] and Jammu and Kashmir[note 3]. After delimitation shortly after its formation, the Puducherry 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 and the remaining three are nominated by the central government. These nominated members enjoy same powers as elected members of the assembly.
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).[3] 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.[4] 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.[5] 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[5] and its members were deemed to have been elected to the Assembly.[6]: 966 Thus, the First Legislative Assembly was formed without an election. Elections for the assembly have been held since 1964.
Very few state/U.T. legislative assemblies have nominated MLAs and their voting powers are limited with Puducherry being the only exception. In 2021, the honourable Supreme Court of India has clarified two important aspects related to the nominated MLAs.[note 4]. The first one is about their nomination. The honorable court held that as per the 1963 act the central government is empowered to nominate the MLAs even without consulting the Government of Puducherry. The second one is about the power of vote of the nominated MLAs.[8] The honourable court also held that the nominated MLAs enjoyed voting powers at par with elected MLAs as the 1963 law per se did not differentiate between the nominated MLAs from the elected ones. So, the nominated MLAs were equally empowered to vote in the crutial motions such as motion of no-confidence[9]
Membership by party
Members of Puducherry assembly by their political party (As on 24.06.2022) :
^This judgement sealed the fate of sealed the fate of Narayasamy's government during the 14th Puducherry Assembly and he lost the trust vote as the nominated MLAs voted against him. With resignations of 6 MLAs (five from Congress and one from DMK), from 33 the house strength dwindled to 26. The Narayansamy-led UPA government consisting of Congress (9 with speaker), DMK (2) and an independent (1), had strength 12. The opposition strength 14 MLAs which consisted of AINRC (7), AIADMK (4) and the three nominated members affiliated to BJP. As per the judgement, counting the strength of nominated MLAs, the opposition outnumbered the government in strength and the government fell out subsequently and the president rule was imposed.[7]
^While six are elected members, the remaining three members are affiliated to BJP and were appointed as nominated MLAs.
