On Wednesday (April 12), the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M K Stalin, appealed to non-BJP ruled States to adopt resolutions in their respective assemblies requesting the Centre to establish a time limit for Governors to approve bills that have been passed by the legislatures.
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Writing to his counterparts, Stalin made the following points:
- “Governors today are indefinitely holding various bills” that have been duly passed by the State legislatures and sent for approval. It brought the respective State administrations to a standstill in such areas related to the bills.
- Considering various aspects of the issue, the Tamil Nadu government took several efforts to clarify the doubts and concerns raised by Governor R N Ravi on the bills sent for his approval. It includes a bill to ban Online Rummy — Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Bill — which has received the Governor’s assent and was notified on April 10.
- As our efforts failed and as we came to know that many other States have similar issues, we in Tamil Nadu deemed it fit to pass a resolution in our State Assembly urging the Union government and the President of India to fix a time limit for the Governors to approve the Bills passed by the respective Legislatures.
- I am sure that you will agree with the spirit and content of the resolution, and extend your support in this regard to uphold the sovereignty and self-respect of the State governments and the Legislatures by passing a similar resolution in your State Assembly.
- The Constitution has clearly defined the roles and responsibilities of the Union and State governments along with that of the Governor. However, it has been observed that such time-tested principles are neither respected nor followed now, affecting the functioning of the State governments.
- As you are aware, Indian democracy today stands at a crossroads and increasingly we are witnessing the fading away of the spirit of cooperative federalism from the governance of the nation.
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