Bharatiya Janata Party-appointed governors are “trampling upon democracy” by transgressing their powers, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said on Friday in a series of tweets.
Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi, during his interaction with civil service aspirants for the ‘Think to Dare’ series at the Raj Bhavan in Chennai on Thursday, said that a Governor has the option to give assent or withhold a Bill passed in the Assembly, adding that the latter would mean that the “Bill is dead”.
Reacting to the remarks, Chidambaram hit out at the Tamil Nadu governor saying that he has given a “strange and peculiar” definition to the withholding of assent to bills passed by the legislature which means that the “bill is dead”.
“Actually, when a governor withholds assent for no valid reason, it means ‘parliamentary democracy is dead’. Governor is bound to grant assent or withhold assent or return the bill. If the bill is passed again, governor is obliged to grant assent,” the former Union minister said.
“The governor is a mere constitutional functionary and is the symbolic head, he said, adding that the governor’s powers are severely restricted and has no powers in most matters,” Chidambaram added.
“A governor is bound to act on the aid and advice of the chief minister and the Council of Ministers. By transgressing their powers, BJP-appointed Governors are trampling upon democracy,” he said in the tweet.
Ravi during his interaction explained the procedure of a Bill being passed in the Assembly before becoming a law.
“The Constitution says that when a Bill passed by the Assembly is forwarded to the Governor for assent, the Governor has three options – assent, withhold the assent… Withholding does not mean that I am just holding it. Withholding has been defined by the Supreme Court by the Constitution Bench, withholding means the Bill is dead. It is a decent language used instead of using rejected. When you say withhold, it means the Bill is dead. Third, he reserves the Bill for the President,” he said.
His comments came under fire from the Chief Minister MK Stalin-led DMK government in Tamil Nadu which said that needlessly delaying approval amounted to “dereliction of duty” on the part of the governor, and further alleged that the Governor did not give his assent to 14 documents.
“Governor by escaping from his administrative duties and roles he didn’t give assent to 14 documents like bills, Ordinance and act which was introduced by people representatives who were all elected by crores of people,” Stalin said in a statement.
“This shows not only Governor does dereliction of duty and also total obstruction. If we put continuous pressure, for name sake Governor by asking some clarification and he is returning the bill thinking his responsibility is over,” he said.