Chief minister M K Stalin on Tuesday hailed the Supreme Court judgment against Tamil Nadu governor R N Ravi as “historic” and “a huge victory”. The Supreme Court slammed the governor, saying the prolonged inaction on the 10 bills passed by the state legislature was “erroneous in law and illegal”.
Addressing the state assembly, Stalin said, “Tamil Nadu has obtained a historic verdict from the Supreme Court. The state assembly sent the bills to governor after passing them in the assembly, many of them for the second time. But the governor did not give his assent. He was delaying assent and claiming he has powers to do so.” The CM said, “We challenged this in the Supreme Court. Based on our plea, the Supreme Court said the governor delaying assent was against the Indian Constitution and all pending bills will be considered assented.”
Overwhelmed by the judgment, Stalin, who thanked the Supreme Court, said the victory was not just for Tamil Nadu but for all states. “Tamil Nadu has been fighting for its ideology, state autonomy, and share in power at Centre. Tamil Nadu will continue to fight and win,” Stalin said.
Visibly thrilled, Stalin went on to address AIADMK as “the ruling party” but immediately corrected himself. He justified the “slip of the tongue” saying, “I am flustered as well as happy over the judgment.”
Law minister S Regupathy said that the Supreme Court made it clear that all the 10 bills that were withheld by the governor will be deemed approved. Regupathy said, “Supreme Court has slammed the governor saying that he caused hindrance to the state govt.”
Though all the parties in the assembly welcomed the judgment, AIADMK and BJP remained mute.
Congratulating Stalin and TN govt for the verdict, assembly speaker M Appavu indirectly hit out at AIADMK for not welcoming the Supreme Court verdict. “Even the bill to name Tamil Nadu Fisheries University in Nagapattinam after former CM J Jayalalithaa was passed for the second time only by DMK govt. At least for that AIADMK should have welcomed the Supreme Court judgment,” Appavu said.
Water resources minister Duraimurugan appreciated Stalin saying, “Stalin went a step ahead of Kalaignar (former CM M Karunanidhi) by getting this verdict in favour of TN. In the debate on the Rajamannar committee in the TN assembly in 1974, the focus was on removing the post of governor.”