Sakshi Cartoon: A Saga of Pending Bills and Southern States

Hyderabad: The Sakshi cartoon is making an attempt to throw some light on the situation faced by both the Tamil Nadu and Telangana governments with regard to the respective Governors’ assent to the Bills passed by the State Legislatures. 

Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin criticised the state Governor RN Ravi for delaying to give assent to 14 documents. He alleged that the Governor has escaped from his administrative duties. 

It may be recalled here that during a recent interaction with the civil services aspirants, the Governor Ravi, while explaining the role of a Governor in the Constitution, had said that his primary responsibility was to protect the Constitution of India. 

Elaborating further, Ravi said that ‘in a legislature, a political party has a brute majority, let us say they can pass any Bill,” and he added, “if it transgresses the Constitutional limit, the Bill passed by the Assembly does not become a law until the Governor assents to it.” 

The Tamil Nadu added that as a Governor, “he has the option to give assent or withhold the Bill passed by the Assembly,” and also said, “withholding” is a “decent language” used for the Bill getting rejected. 

Meanwhile, the Telangana government has recently approached the Supreme Court after a considerable delay from the Governor’s office on the 10 Bills passed by the State Legislature and the matter is currently sub judice. The KCR government has contended that the Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan is creating a ‘constitutional impasse’ by delaying to give assent to the submitted bills. 

When a Bill is passed by the state legislature and presented to the Governor, the Governor can either assent to it, withhold their assent or reserve it for the President’s consideration, according to Article 200.

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