CHENNAI: Launching a scathing attack on Governor RN Ravi for his remarks on how to handle the Bills adopted by the state Assembly and about the procedures of the assembly, Law Minister S Regupathy accused Ravi of trying to act like a ‘superior chief minister’.
“It is painful to witness the governor continuing to malign the sovereignty of the Tamil Nadu Assembly and the interests of the people of the state for the sake of his own whims and fancies and his political views, forgetting that he should be loyal only to the Constitution,” the minister said in a statement.
Regupathy said the governor has created a situation wherein the people of the state are forced to ask whether the Raj Bhavan is a place where constitutional activities take place or it is a political forum. The governor has conveniently forgotten the fact that the constituent assembly has decided that the governors could be appointed while the chief minister has to be elected by the people to prevent the governor from acting as ‘superior to the chief minister’.
Pointing out that the administrative powers lie with the popular government elected by the people and with the state cabinet, the minister said, “The state cabinet alone is answerable to the Assembly. Because of this, the Supreme Court has reiterated in many judgments including the Shamsher Singh case that the governor should act according to the advice of the state cabinet.”
The minister also pointed out that the Supreme Court, in the judgment had said, “For a centrally appointed constitutional functionary to take up public stances critical of government policy settled by the cabinet or to interfere in the administration directly - these are unconstitutional faux pas and run counter to a parliamentary system.”
The governor has forgotten this while speaking about the bills including the one to ban online gambling.
“Even after the Chief Minister’s response to the governor’s remarks, the Twitter handle of Raj Bhavan has been used to carry out a campaign against the state government. It is not befitting to the office of governor and also the traditions,” the minister added.