Tamil Nadu Govt v. Governor| Supreme Court Issues Notice Requiring Attorney General To Assist Court, Notes That It Is A Matter Of Serious Concern

The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Centre in the plea challenging the Tamil Nadu Governor Dr. RN Ravi's alleged inaction and delay in considering the Bills passed by the Tamil Nadu State Legislature, as well as his alleged failure to review and sign off on various files, government orders, and policies forwarded by the State Government. Interestingly, similar petitions by the States of Punjab and Kerala challenging their respective Governor's alleged inaction is also pending before the Court.

Noting that the matter is of "serious concern", a bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud required the Attorney General For India, R Venkataramini's presence or in his absence Solicitor General Tushar Mehta's presence to assist the Court on the next date.

The bench also comprising Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra on the submissions made by the State of Tamil Nadu, thus observed, "the issues raised in the petition is a mater of serious concern. From the tabulated statements which are submitted before this court, it appears that as many as 12 bills which have been submitted to the Governor under Article 200 have not elicited any further action. Other matter such as proposals for the grant of sanction; proposals for the premature release of the prisoners and the appointments to the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission are pending. Bearing in mind the above situation, we issue notice to the second respondent, namely the Union of India represented by the Secretary to the Government in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. We request the Attorney General or in his absence, Solicitor General to assist this court".  

Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Mukul Rohatagi and P Wilson appeared for the State of Tamil Nadu.

At the outset, during the arguments today, Singhvi commented, "From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Punjab to Tamil Nadu the disease is spreading". 

While he further said, "There is a very interesting phase in Article 200, as soon as possible", to argue that the interpretation of Article 200-Assent to bills and the emerging words "as soon as possible" in the proviso is not new and was in fact the actual intention of the constituent assembly.

The State prepared four categories of matters on which the Governor is yet to take an action. As per the first category, 12 bills passed by the Tamil Nadu State Legislative Assembly between 2020 and 2023 are pending with the Governor, even though were submitted for the assent of the Governor between January 13, 2020 and April 28, 2023. The second category consisted of the 4 files April 10, 2022 and May 15, 2023 for according sanction for prosecution of various crimes involving alleged acts of moral turpitude on the part of public servants. The third category comprised 54 files for premature release of prisoners submitted between August 24, 2023 and June 28, 2023. While the fourth category had proposals submitted to the Governor for appointment to the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPCS) who were to appointed under Article 316 of the Constitution, it said that TNPCS is functioning with the strength of 4 members out of the total 14.

As per the proviso of Article 200 of the Constitution of India, "...the Governor may, as soon as possible after the presentation to him of the Bill for assent, return the Bill if it is not a Money Bill together with a message requesting that the House or Houses will reconsider the Bill or any specified provisions thereof and, in particular, will consider the desirability of introducing any such amendments as he may recommend in his message and, when a Bill is so returned, the House or Houses shall reconsider the Bill accordingly, and if the Bill is passed again by the House or Houses with or without amendment and presented to the Governor for assent, the Governor shall not withhold assent therefrom".

Terming the inaction of the Governor of Tamil Nadu as unconstitutional, unreasonable, and a malicious exercise of power, the writ petition asserts that this inaction is causing a complete standstill in the administration and fostering an adversarial relationship by not cooperating with the State administration.

The petition moved through the Advocate-on-Record Sabarish Subramanian states, "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".

It has also been stated that Dr. RN Ravi, the Governor of Tamil Nadu has positioned himself as a political rival to the legitimately elected Government by hindering and obstructing the Legislative Assembly's ability to carry out its legislative duties by unjustly and excessively delaying the consideration of bills that the Assembly has passed.

Cause Title: The State of Tamil Nadu v. The Governor Of Tamil Nadu