Chennai : The Madras High Court on Thursday declared the nomination of three MLAs by Puducherry governor Kiran Bedi valid after an eight month long legal wrangle.

The Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi had nominated three MLAs without discussing the issue with the elected chief minister, V Narayanswamy who took serious exception and challenged the nomination.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar in their separate but similar judgments said the nominations done by the governor Kiran Bedi were in order.

Kiran Bedi said the Madras High Court order strengthens democracy and improves debate. It increases governance accountability, also increases ground work for people through three more MLAs, she said.

The High Court also held invalid the assembly speaker’s letter refusing to allow the nominated MLAs to attend sessions of the house.

The three nominated MLAs, all belonging to the BJP, could not participate in assembly proceedings as a result of the speaker’s order. The speaker had also refused to swear them in and administer oath of office to them.

While Congress MLA and former minister K Lakshminarayanan in a petition sought to prevent the centre from filling the vacancies and sought the quashing of the nominations, the three MLAs challenged the refusal of speaker to give them permission to attend house proceedings.

The Congress leader maintained that the nominations were in contravention of the constitutional provisions and alleged that the nominations were to get the BJP members into the assembly by the backdoor.