Government of Puducherry is the union territorial government for the union territory 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 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is headed by the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. Its capital is located at

Pondicherry Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...

Government and administration

Lieutenant Governor

The Lt. Governor is appointed by the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

for a term of five years. The executive and legislative powers lie with 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 terri ...

and his council of ministers, who are appointed by the President. The Governors of the

states and territories of India India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

have similar powers and functions at the state level as that of 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 ...

at Union level. Only Indian citizens above 35 years of age are eligible for appointment. Governors discharge all

constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princip ...

functions such as the appointment of the Chief Minister, sending reports to the President about failure of constitutional machinery in a state, or with respect to issues relating to the assent to a

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

passed by legislature, exercise or their own opinion. Dr.

Tamilisai Soundararajan Tamilisai Soundararajan (born 2 June 1961) is an Indian politician serving as the 2nd and current Governor of Telangana, and is the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry (Additional charge) since 18 February 2021. She was the National Secretary an ...

is the present governor. The Governor enjoys many different types of powers: #Executive powers related to administration, appointments and removals. #Legislative powers related to lawmaking and the state legislature. #Discretionary powers to be carried out according to the discretion of the Governor. The legislative branch comprises the governor and the legislative assembly, which is the highest political organ in state. The governor has the power to summon the assembly or to close the same. All members of the legislative assembly are directly elected, normally once in every five years by the eligible voters who are above 18 years of age. The current assembly consists of 30 elected members and 3 members nominated by Central Government.The elected members select one of its own members as its chairman who is called the

speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

. The speaker is assisted by the deputy speaker who is also elected by the members. The conduct of meeting in the house is the responsibility of the Speaker. The main function of the

assembly Assembly may refer to: Organisations and meetings * Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions * General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their representa ...

is to pass laws and rules. Every bill passed by the house has to be finally approved by the governor before it becomes applicable. The normal term of the legislative assembly is five years from the date appointed for its first meeting. But while a proclamation of

state of emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...

is in operation, the said period will be extended by

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

by Laws for a period not exceeding one year at a time. The Puducherry Legislative Assembly election, last assembly election took place in May 2016.

Judiciary

The Madras High Court is the court for this territory, which is the same for

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

. It is a court of record and has all the powers of such a court including the authority to punish an individual for contempt of court. Like all other

High Courts of India The high courts of India are the highest courts of appellate jurisdiction in each state and union territory of India. However, a high court exercises its original civil and criminal jurisdiction only if the subordinate courts are not authoriz ...

, this court also consists of a Chief Justice and other judges who are appointed by the President of India. Every

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

including the Chief Justice is appointed by the President of India by Warrant under his hand and seal. Every permanent and additional judge will continue in office until the age of 62.

Executive

Like in other Indian states, the Executive arm of the state is responsible for the day-to-day management of the state. It consists of the Governor, the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers. The Chief Minister and the council of ministers also have been appointed by the governor. Governor summons prorogues and dissolves the legislature. He can close the legislative assembly on the recommendations by the Chief Minister.

Judiciary The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

has been separated from the executive in Pondicherry like other Indian states.

Chief Minister

The executive authority is headed by the Chief Minister of Pondicherry, who is the

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

head of the territory and is vested with most of the executive powers; the Legislative Assembly's majority party leader is appointed to this position by the President. Generally, the winning party decides the chief minister. In many cases, the party focuses a chief ministerial candidate during the election.

Departments

* Accounts and Treasuries * Adi Dravidar Welfare * Agriculture * Animal Husbandry * Arts & Culture * Chief Vigilance Office * Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs * Commercial Taxes * Co-operative Societies * Economics & Statistics * Elections * Electricity * Fire Service * Fisheries & Fishermen Welfare * Forestry & Wild Life * Government Automobile Workshop * Health & Family Welfare Services * Higher & Technical Education * Hindu Religious Institutions * Industries & Commerce * Information & Publicity * Information Technology * Labour * Law * Local Administration * Personnel and Administrative Reforms * Planning & Research * Police * Port * Prisons * Public Works * Revenue and Disaster Management * Rural Development * School Education * Science, Technology & Environment * Social Welfare * Stationery & Printing * Tourism * Town and Country Planning * Transport * Women & Child Development

Politics

Pondicherry is a Union territory currently ruled by the

All India N.R. Congress All India N.R. Congress (abbr. AINRC) is a regional political party formed by the Chief Minister of Puducherry, N. Rangaswamy in the Indian union territory of Puducherry. He announced the party formation on 7 February 2011 in the party's h ...

and

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mo ...

alliance. The state assembly has 33 seats out of which 30 are elected by the people. The

has 10 seats and its alliance partner

has 6 seats, thus taking the government's majority to 16 seats. DMK is the main opposition party with 6 seats. There are 6

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

candidates elected by the people. The remaining 3 candidates from Central Government (NDA) have been appointed by Ministry of Home Affairs.

References

External links

Official Website of PuducherryOfficial website of Madras High Court
{{Government of India by state or territory