The Supreme Court of India delivered a significant victory today for Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister MK Stalin, finding that the actions of Governor RN Ravi regarding ten crucial pieces of legislation were unlawful.
The court decisively declared Ravi’s decision to withhold assent from these bills and subsequently refer them to the President as “illegal” and “arbitrary.” This ruling effectively nullifies the Governor’s previous actions on all ten bills.
As stated in the judgement:
“The action of the Governor to reserve the 10 bills for the President is illegal and arbitrary. Thus, the action is set aside. All actions taken by the Governor thereto for the 10 bills are set aside.”
Furthermore, the court clarified that a governor cannot refer legislation for presidential assent after initially withholding their own approval.
The ruling stipulates:
- All prior actions undertaken by the Governor concerning these ten bills have been invalidated.
- The Bills will now be considered cleared from the moment they were re-presented to the Governor.
The bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan underscored the importance of adhering to established legal procedures in the legislative process.
