CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu governor R N Ravi has returned 10 bills to the state government and referred two bills to President Droupadi Murmu for consideration.
The move came less than a week after the Supreme Court expressed concern over the delay in governors giving assent to bills.Less than 24 hours after getting the governor's communication on Wednesday, the state government called for a special session on Saturday to re-adopt the bills.The CJI-led bench of SC is set to hear Tamil Nadu government's petition against the "inaction, omission, delay and failure" of thegovernor on Monday.Among the bills the governor returned are those empowering the state government in the administration of state universities, diminishing the powers of the governor.
Two of the returned bills were passed by the previous AIADMK government.
Those forwarded to the President sought establishment of the Tamil Nadu Siddha Medical University and empowering the state government to appoint the vice-chancellor of the University of Madras.Assembly speaker M Appavu said discussions on the SC, President or the governor would not be allowed during the special assembly session that would start at 10am on Saturday.
"The legislature has absolute sovereignty.
The views of the people are brought to the assembly and passed unanimously.
This must be considered by the President and the Union government," the speaker said.As per Article 200 of the Constitution, the governor shall declare either that he gives his assent to the bill or that he withholds assent therefrom or that he reserves the bill for consideration of the President.
Ravi gave assent to a re-adopted bill to ban online gambling and regulation of online games earlier this year and referred the re-adopted anti-NEET bill to the President last year.The bills returned were adopted in April - May last year to amend University laws to vest powers with the state government to appoint vice-chancellors.
The government had taken a cue from university laws of Gujarat, Telangana, - Karnataka, on the sidelines of escalating conflict between Raj Bhavan and the state government on various issues.