Law Minister reminds Guv of SC verdicts on powers

CHENNAI: State Law Minister S Regupathy on Friday reminded Governor RN Ravi of the various Supreme Court verdicts ‘defining’ the limits of Governors powers and said that the imagination of Governor Ravi that he was more powerful than a Chief Minister elected by the people was ‘polluting’ the principles of democracy.

“It is worrisome that the Governor has forgotten that he must be loyal only to the Constitution. He is continuously insulting the sovereignty of the state Assembly and welfare of the state people for his personal whims and fancies and political views,” Regupathy said in a statement issued late on Friday, hours after his party led alliance announced a protest demonstration against the Governor on April 12.

Pointing out that the Constituent Assembly had decided to “merely appoint the Governor” on the premise that the Governor must not act like a person “superior than the Chief Minister,” the Law Minister quoted the SC verdict in Shamsher Singh case and said that for some reason, the Governor has forgotten it while publicly speaking about the online rummy ban among other bills passed by Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.

Recalling the recommendation of the Sarkaria Commission which recommended the complete removal of the word ‘withhold’ from Article 200 of the Constitution and said, “IPS officer Ravi must sit at leisure in the vast Raj Bhavan and read the Shamsher Singh case and Sarkaria Commission recommendation extensively before making statements in public like a legal luminary.” Accusing the Governor of neither reading the Constitution nor the SC verdicts and Sarkaria Commission recommendations, the Law Minister said that the Governor must realise that it was against the conventions and the pride of his position to use the official Twitter handle of Raj Bhavan to campaign against the government.

Remarking that the Governor’s hunger for power was blinding him from reading the Constitutional verdicts, the Minister said that every citizen believing in Parliamentary democracy was concerned that sovereignty of the TN Assembly and welfare of TN people was being shredded in the hands of the incumbent Governor.