The Government – Governer Rivalary
Pic Credits: Lawbeats
The Government – Governer Rivalary
The Tamil Nadu Government has moved the Supreme Court alleging that the Governor of the State of Tamil Nadu Dr RN Ravi has been avoiding giving assent to the bills signed by the State government.
Governers Power Over State Bills
Article 153 says that there shall be a Governor for each State. Nothing in this Article shall prevent the appointment of the same person as Governor for two or more States. The executive power of the State is vested in the Governor. Article 200 of the Indian constitution determines how the bill is to be passed by the assembly and then sent to the Governor of that respective State and he in furtherance to it, may withhold it, assent it, reserve it for consideration by the President or if it questions the position of high court or return it for reconsideration but if the bill is sent back by the House without any change,
the Governor has to give his consent to that bill. He cannot send the bill back to the State Legislature if it is a Money Bill. He/she can also reserve the bill if it is against the provisions of the Constitution, opposed to the DPSP, against the larger interest of the country, of grave national importance, deals with compulsory acquisition of property under Article 31A of the Constitution. The Supreme Court said that the assent should not be withheld for a longer time and must be passed as soon as possible. “The expression ‘as soon as possible’ contains significant constitutional content and must be borne in mind by constitutional authorities,” the Court observed. Supreme Court to fix a reasonable time frame for Governors to make a decision on a Bill passed by the Assembly so as to keep the spirit of Federalism going.
The Tamil Nadu Government And Governor Conflict
In the recent news, a political rivalry between the Tamil Nadu government and the Governor of Tamil Nadu is going on. The present government of Tamil Nadu is headed by M.K.Stalin of the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) party and the Governor of the State of Tamil Nadu is Dr RN Ravi. The Government has moved Supreme Court alleging that the Governor of the State of Tamil Nadu Dr RN Ravi has positioned himself as a “political rival” to the State Government and is obstructing the State Legislative Assembly’s ability to carry out its duties by excessively delaying the consideration of bills. Filed by Advocate Sabarish Subramanian, the petitioner submitted that the Governor’s inaction had caused a ‘constitutional deadlock’ between the Constitutional head of the state and the elected government of the state. As per the petition, not only has the Governor kept multiple Bills pending, but he has also failed to accord sanctions for the prosecution and investigation of various corruption crimes. Various applications for the various appointments have been pending. The petition says ‘the Governor by not “signing remission orders, day to day files, appointment orders, approving recruitment orders, granting approval 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.” They have also requested the SC to outline the time of holding the bill.
As per the petition, “the refusal to act on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers or deliberate inaction in acting on the Bills or on the files on the part of the Governor including any delay, will defeat the parliamentary democracy and the will of the people and consequently violates the basic structure of the Constitution.” In one of the previous judgements of the Supreme Court on the petition filed by the Telangana state government, the court said that the governor must return the bill as soon as possible under Article 2000.
