‘Governor acting as political rival’: TN govt moves SC against Ravi over delay in nod to bills

The feud between the Tamil Nadu government and the Raj Bhavan has escalated with the former moving the Supreme Court against RN Ravi and alleging that he has positioned himself as a “political rival” to the state government and is obstructing the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from carrying out its duties by excessively delaying the clearing of bills and Government Orders (GO) passed by the Assembly.

The government in the petition said that the “inactions” of the governor have caused a “constitutional deadlock between the Constitutional Head of the State and the Elected Government of the State,” and demanded a timeline by which the latter can dispose all pending bills, files and GO sent by the legislative assembly.

The government’s petition also asked for an order to lay down guidelines that would stipulate the outer time limit for governors to consider bills passed by respective state assemblies.

The plea quoted Article 200 of the Indian Constitution that regulates the governor’s power to grant or withhold assent to bills. This provision states that once a bill has been passed by the legislative assembly, it will be presented to the governor, who then has the authority to either give assent to the bill, withhold assent, or reserve the bill for the President’s consideration.

The petition also states that the governor has failed to give sanction for the prosecution and investigation of various crimes of corruption. Several applications for the appointment of the chairman and members of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission are still pending with the governor.

“The governor by not signing remission orders, approving to prosecute ministers, MLAs involved in corruption including transfer of investigation to CBI by Supreme Court, Bills passed by Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is bringing the entire administration to a grinding halt and creating adversarial attitude by not cooperating with the state administration,” the plea said.

The Supreme Court in April this year had considered a similar petition filed by Telangana against the state governor and observed that governors must return the bills “as soon as possible” in deference to the terms of Article 200.

Government-governor tussle

The Stalin government has been at loggerheads with the Raj Bhavan on several issues, the latest of it being the hurling of a petrol bomb on the governor’s residence by a man.

While the Raj Bhavan in a statement accused the Tamil Nadu police of treating the governor’s security with “studied indifference” despite incidents of public threats to his life, the government slammed the former of spreading lies and politicising the petrol bomb issue.

Stating that the "bomb attacks" on the Raj Bhavan, where a man hurled Molotov cocktail, was a consequence of the state police’s indifference towards it. In a complaint to the Chennai Police Commissioner regarding the incident, the governor's office also alleged verbal attacks and threats "mostly by leaders and workers of DMK and its allies in their public meetings and through their social media."

"These threats are intended to overawe the Governor and restrain him in discharging his Constitutional duties. However, complaints lodged with the police have been inconsequential due to police inaction," it said.

Responding to the accusations, Chief Minister Stalin on Monday said that the Raj Bhavan has turned into a BJP office and Ravi has become a BJP partyman. He accused the governor spreading lies on the petrol bomb case in a planned manner from the Raj Bhavan.

Earlier this year, Ravi had courted controversy by remarking that the state’s name should be Thamizhagam instead of Tamil Nadu.

In January, he left the assembly session after Stalin moved a resolution asking the Speaker to record only the speech prepared by the state government and expunge parts that the governor added during his customary address to the house.