The Puducherry Legislative Assembly is the

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...

legislature of the Indian union territory (UT) of

Puducherry Puducherry or Pondicherry may refer to: * Puducherry (union territory), a union territory of India ** Pondicherry, capital of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry district, a district of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry t ...

, which comprises four districts:

Karaikal Karaikal ( /kʌdɛkʌl/, french: Karikal /kaʁikal/) is a town of the Indian Union Territory of Puducherry. Karaikal was sold to the French by the Rajah of Thanjavur and became a French Colony in 1739. The French held control, with occa ...

, Mahé and

Yanam Yanam (Telugu language, Telugu: ''యానాం'') is a town located in the Yanam district in Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. It has a population of 35,000 and is entirely surrounded by Andhra Pradesh. It was formerly a French Ind ...

. Out of eight union territories of India, only three have legislatures and they are

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

and Jammu and Kashmir. After delimitation shortly after its formation, the Puducherry legislative assembly has 33 seats, of which 5 are reserved for candidates from

scheduled castes The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

and 3 members are nominated by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

. 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. Puducherry Electoral Constituencies Map

Geographically, the area under the Puducherry UT consists of three disjointed regions, with Puducherry and Karaikal districts surrounded by districts of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language— ...

, Yanam district an enclave of

East Godavari district East Godavari is a district in the Coastal Andhra region of Andhra Pradesh, India. Its district headquarters is at Rajahmundry. As of census 2011, it became the most populous district of the state with a population of 5,151,549. In the Madras Pr ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

, and Mahé district bordered by districts of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Canar ...

. 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 The Delimitation commission or Boundary commission of India is a commission established by the Government of India under the provisions of the Delimitation Commission Act. The main task of the commission is redrawing the boundaries of the vari ...

History

Assembly during French rule

In 1946,

French India French India, formally the ( en, French Settlements in India), was a French colony comprising five geographically separated enclaves on the Indian Subcontinent that had initially been factories of the French East India Company. They were ''d ...

(''Inde française'') became

Overseas territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or an ...

('' 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''). 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. Later the territory was merged with India on 16 August 1962. On 10 May 1963, the

Indian Parliament The Parliament of India (IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the Peo ...

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. Under Article 239 of the

Indian Constitution The Constitution of India (IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental r ...

, the

President of India The president of India (IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu i ...

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 A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terr ...

. The President, on the advice of the

, 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 and its members were deemed to have been elected to the Assembly. Thus, the '' First Legislative Assembly'' was formed without an election. Elections for the assembly have been held since 1964.

Nominated MLAs

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

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India (IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters e ...

has clarified two important aspects related to the nominated MLAs.. The first one is about their nomination. The court held that as per the 1963 act the

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or deleg ...

is empowered to nominate the MLAs even without consulting the

Government of Puducherry Government of Puducherry is the union territorial government for the union territory of Puducherry, India. It is headed by the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. Its capital is located at Pondicherry. Government and administration Lieuten ...

. The second one is about the power of vote of the nominated MLAs. The court also held that the nominated MLAs enjoys voting powers at par with elected MLAs as the 1963 law per se did not differentiate between the nominated MLAs from the elected ones.

Tenures of different legislative assemblies of Puducherry

Source:

Membership by party

Members of Puducherry assembly by their political party (As on 24.06.2022) :

Members of Legislative Assembly

Notes

References

External links

Pouducherry Legislative Assembly

{{Puducherry elections State legislatures of India