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Hours after the Supreme Court on Tuesday hit back at Tamil Nadu Governor conduct RN Ravi conduct as “unconstitutional” and slammed him for his inaction on 10 crucial Bills for months together before referring them to the President soon after they were re-passed by the State Legislature, MK Stalin said that this verdict is a huge victory not only for the state, but for all state governments in India.
The Chief Minister in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly regarding the historic verdict delivered by the Supreme Court, which stated that the act of withholding assent by the Governor to the bills passed and sent by the state Legislative Assembly was unconstitutional, and that the bills must be considered as having received the Governor’s assent.
Stalin said that “I wish to convey a joyful news to this House. Just now, the Tamil Nadu Government has received a historic verdict. Several important bills that we passed in this Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly and sent for the assent of the Governor were returned without assent”.
The DMK leader said that in that situation, “we passed them once again here and sent them back”.
“Even though the Constitution clearly stipulates that the Governor must provide assent to the bills passed for the second time by the Legislative Assembly, the Governor kept delaying them without giving assent, while claiming that he had the authority to do so,” Stalin said.
He said that challenging this, the Tamil Nadu government filed a case in the Supreme Court and accepting the merits of stafe government’s arguments, the Apex court today delivered a historic verdict, declaring that the act of withholding the bills by the Governor was unconstitutional, and that the bills must be deemed to have received the Governor’s assent.
“This verdict is a huge victory not only for Tamil Nadu, but for all State governments in India. Tamil Nadu has fought to uphold the core principles of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam — State Autonomy and Federalism. Tamil Nadu fights, Tamil Nadu wins,” he added.
His remarks came after the Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a landmark ruling on the role of Governors regarding bills passed by state assemblies, outlining key aspects of their powers under Article 200 of the Constitution.
Justice Pardiwala, in his judgment, held that there is no concept of “absolute veto” or “pocket veto” under the Constitutional scheme.
