Supreme Court finds Tamil Nadu Governor’s conduct on 10 re-passed Bills was ‘unconstitutional’, puts Governors on the clock
www.thehindu.com
Supreme Court criticizes Tamil Nadu Governor for delaying crucial bills, sets time limits for future actions, emphasizing Constitutional obligations.

Liberal multi-party democracy moment.

In India, the state legislature creates bills which are then sent to the state’s governor for assent. The governor has three options from here:

  1. Send the bill back to the house with recommendations (can do this only once)
  2. Forward the bill to the president for consideration.
  3. Give assent to the bill.

The governor is not to be confused with the chief minister of a state who is directly elected in state-wide elections.

The twist is that the governor to a state is appointed by the central government. Tamil Nadu is ruled by a regional party called DMK which has enmity with BJP. So the BJP-appointed governor just sits on the bills indefinitely rendering the state legislature essentially useless.

In this ruling the Supreme Course rendered the actions of the governor void and approved the bills.

This happens in every state which does not have a ruling BJP majority or coalition including Kerala. Since India is a functioning democracy it took ten bills and many more in other states for the Supreme Court to do something about it. Also since India is governed by the rule of law of course BJP and the governor are going to get away scot-free.