Minister post for Ponmudy: DMK goes to SC, slams guv
NEW DELHI/CHENNAI: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider a plea of the Tamil Nadu government against the refusal of Governor RN Ravi to appoint senior DMK leader K Ponmudy as a minister in the state cabinet. The DMK said the governor’s own interpretation of the SC order stating that the conviction has only been suspended and not set aside is an absurd interpretation and is an affront to the SC order. “President Draupadi Murmu must recall him immediately as he is an insult to the office of the governor,” the DMK said.
The governor, in a letter to Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday, refused to re-induct the senior DMK leader into the cabinet, saying it would be against constitutional morality. Ponmudy was reinstated as a legislator after the Supreme Court suspended his conviction in a disproportionate assets case.
A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra on Monday took note of the submissions of senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and P Wilson, appearing for the state government, that the matter should be urgently listed for hearing. “Please send an email. I will look into it,” the CJI said.
“Governor of Tamil Nadu is breaching the constitutional mandate to follow the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers in discharge of his official functions. He also disregards and delays granting of assent to the bills passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly,” the state said in its petition.
Guv cannot decide who should be a minister: DMK
“The governor is acting as a political opponent of the government and is challenging the government on its policies and the legislature on the laws enacted by it. The state government is thus forced to file this plea before the apex court,” the state said in its petition.
DMK MP and party’s legal advisor P Wilson, said Governor Ravi is proving to be a repeat offender and is acting with scant regard to the Constitution. Wilson said the governor’s own interpretation of the SC order stating that the conviction has only been suspended and not set aside is an absurd interpretation and is an affront to the SC order.
The DMK MP also pointed out that a governor cannot decide who should be a minister on moral grounds or any other grounds and this legal position is a well-settled one. Wilson also charged that the governor’s confrontation with the government is unsurprising since he is acting as the de facto president of the TN’s BJP unit. “The governor is seeking to run a parallel government from the Raj Bhavan because the BJP can never set foot in Fort St. George. I urge the President of India to recall him immediately,” he added. “The governor is bound by the orders of the SC under Articles 142 & 144 of the Constitution of India. His blatant refusal to accede to the CM’s request to appoint Ponmudy as the higher education minister amounts to subversion of the rule of law and violation of Article 164(1) of the Constitution,” he added. “When the conviction order of the HC is “suspended” by apex court, it means that order is non-existent in the eyes of the law,” Wilson said. A two-judge bench of the SC headed by Justice Abhay S Oka on March 11 stayed his conviction in the DA case. It also suspended the sentence of his wife, P Vishalatchi, and allowed her to move the special court for bail.
