CHENNAI: A day after Chief Minister MK Stalin strongly took up the delay being caused by Governor RN Ravi in forwarding the Bill seeking exemption from NEET for medical admissions in Tamil Nadu to the President, DMK MP P Wilson on Friday introduced a private member's Bill in the Rajya Sabha to amend Article 200 of the Constitution setting a two-month time limit for Governors to decide on Bills.
"Some of the Governors are impeding the functioning of democratically elected Governments by acting as stumbling blocks in processing the Bills passed by the Legislative Assemblies. They sit over the Bills indefinitely and some Governors are even usurping the powers of the President, passing unwarranted comments while returning the Bill to the Legislatures. The returning of the NEET Bill in our state is one such act of a Governor," Wilson told The New Indian Express.
The Bill introduced by the DMK MP said the absence of a time limit in Article 200 gives the Governor unbridled power to delay the fate of the Bill. Thus, non-prescription of a time limit is an impediment to the welfare of the people. Governors taking a long time to decide on the Bills defeat the will of the people since the State Legislature represents the mandate of the people.
Pointing out that as the Constitutional Head of the State, the Governor owes a responsibility to the people of the state, the Bill said, "It is trite in law that any constitutional authority must perform its duties within a reasonable time frame. However, in the recent past, we have seen several instances of Governors sitting over Bills passed by the State Legislatures for an inordinate amount of time, without deciding one way or the other," the Bill explained.
"All Bills passed by the State Legislature are for the welfare of the people of the state. The state government’s functioning cannot indirectly be curtailed and rendered inutile by the actions of the Governor, a Union appointee. That infringes the balance of power between the Union and states established by the Constitution," the Bill added.
Meanwhile, DMK mouthpiece Murasoli, in its editorial, took exception to a further delay being caused by Governor RN Ravi in forwarding the NEET Bill to the President. "The State Assembly has passed this Bill for the second time and it is pending before the Governor nearly for around two months. When Chief Minister MK Stalin called on him on March 15 and urged him to forward the Bill to the President, the Governor had assured him that it would be done. However, till now, it has not been forwarded to the President," the editorial said.
The editorial of Murasoli further said the way the Governor delays the NEET Bill goes against the Cabinet system being followed in India. "The Governors cannot function in a manner similar to what prevailed during the Dual Rule system in the 1920s," the editorial added.