TN Government moves Supreme Court against Governor over refusal to swear in Ponmudy

CHENNAI: A day after Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi rejected Chief Minister MK Stalin's recommendation to swear in senior DMK leader K Ponmudy as a minister again, the State government filed a petition before the Supreme Court.

In the petition, the Tamil Nadu government sought a direction from the apex court to the Governor to appoint Ponmudy as a minister and shuffle the portfolios of cabinet members as recommended by the Chief Minister.

After senior counsels Abhishek Manu Singhvi and P Wilson took up the matter as an urgent mentioning for listing the petition before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud's bench, the CJI permitted the plea.

Earlier on Sunday, Governor Ravi sent a formal communication to Chief Minister Stalin, stating that he would not swear in Ponmudy as he was "tainted of corruption" and hence his re-induction as a minister would be against "constitutional morality".

According to the Governor, the Supreme Court has only suspended Ponmudy's conviction as an interim relief, and not set aside the conviction entirely.

Ponmudy and his wife were convicted in a disproportionate assets case by the Madras High Court, which awarded them three years' prison sentence. This automatically disqualified him as an MLA, due to which he was no longer a part of the State cabinet in which he was the Higher Education Minister.

The Assembly secretariat had also notified the vacancy of the legislative constituency, setting ground for a by-poll.

But after the Supreme Court stayed the conviction on March 11, the notification was withdrawn, and both Speaker M Appavu and State Law Minister S Regupathy said there was no legal impediment to Ponmudy being re-inducted to the cabinet.

On March 13, Chief Minister Stalin had written to the Governor, recommending Ponmudy's swearing in on the same day or the next day. But the Governor left for New Delhi the next morning, forcing the DMK government to wait for his response.