Chennai: The Supreme Court Monday came down heavily on Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi for the delay in clearing pending bills, and asked what he had been doing for the last three years since the oldest of them had been passed by the assembly in January 2020.
The top court noted that Ravi had returned the bills to the legislature – withholding his assent — after a rap on 10 November when judges observed that the governor’s inaction was a matter of “serious concern”.
A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud asked Ravi’s counsel, Advocate General R. Venkataramani, what the governor had done for the last three years and also why he should wait for parties to approach the Supreme Court.
The apex court was hearing a writ petition filed by Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK government on 31 October, where it claimed that the governor’s inaction had resulted in a “constitutional deadlock” and had “brought the entire administration of the state to a grinding halt”.
Advocate general’s defence of Ravi
Venkataramani Monday told the court that all 12 bills previously pending with the governor had been disposed of on 13 November.
In his detailed report, the advocate general said the Raj Bhavan received 181 bills between 2020 and 2023, of which 152 got the governor’s assent.
He further submitted that five of the 181 bills were withdrawn by the government, while nine of them had been reserved for the consideration of the President.
Another five are under process as they had been sent to Ravi only in October this year, Venkataramani said.
Of the 12 bills that the government is suing the governor for, 10 were returned on 13 November, while two are with the President, the advocate general told the bench.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government convened a special session of the assembly last Saturday and “re-passed” the 10 returned bills. These were sent back to the governor the same day.
While the state’s counsel asked the top court to urge the governor to give his assent to these 10 bills, the three-judge bench wanted to know if a governor can send a bill for the President’s consideration after it had been “re-passed” by the House.
Senior counsels for the state Mukul Rohatgi and A.M. Singhvi replied that the governor must give his assent to a bill that has been “re-passed” by the legislature.
The state’s other grouse was that the governor was sitting on files to sanction the prosecution of two former AIADMK ministers and a state vice-chancellor.
The advocate general said Ravi had given permission to investigate AIADMK’s B.V. Ramana and C. Vijaya Baskar on 13 November after receiving the file on 12 September 2022.
Similarly on 18 November, permission was granted to investigate G. Baskaran, former vice-chancellor of Tamil University, Thanjavur.
In the case of two other former Ministers — K.C. Veeramani and M.R. Vijayabhaskar — the governor had sought for an authenticated investigation report for the former while the file was “under consideration” for the latter, Venkataramani told the court.
Addressing the state’s concern that the governor was dragging his feet on the premature release of life convicts, the AG told the court that Ravi had approved 362 of the 580 proposals since assuming office in September 2021.
He said 165 requests were rejected, and the 53 filed recently were still pending before Ravi.
The next hearing of the case is on 1 December.
‘Governor’s inaction hinders governance’
DMK spokesperson Manuraj Shunmugasundaram told ThePrint Monday that the governor had “hurriedly returned the bills” to the assembly after the state knocked the Supreme Court’s door.
“This shows we could have done in 10 days what the governor had withheld for months, even years,” he said, adding, “This delay by the governor impinges on the ability of a government to function.”
Shunmugasundaram said the trend of governors withholding assent to bills happened only in non-BJP states and that it was a “political ploy” executed by their offices across the country. “There is a political undercurrent in the omission or inaction of Governors,” the DMK leader said.
Edited by Tikli Basu
Also read: ‘What was he doing for 3 yrs?’ SC raps Tamil Nadu Governor Ravi for delay in clearing bills