The Madras High Court has ordered that no name should be added or removed from the register of residents of Auroville, a cultural township in Puducherry, until furthers orders to be passed by it on writ petitions that had questioned the power to do so having been taken away from the Residents’ Assembly and conferred on a newly constituted Admissions and Terminations Scrutinizing Committee (ATSC).
Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the interim order after being prima facie satisfied that the Residents’ Assembly had been totally ignored under the Auroville Foundation (Admission and Termination of Person in the Register of Residents) Regulations, 2023 and such disregard amounts to violation of Section 19 of the Auroville Foundation Act, 1988.
“The subordinate legislation (2023 Regulations) may supplement the statute; however, cannot supplant it. Prima facie, the Regulations under challenge erode upon the power of the Residents’ Assembly to allow admissions or cause the termination of persons in the register,” the Bench said and added that the Governing Board could not take away the statutory power of the Residents Assembly through the Regulations.
