Tamil Nadu Government Notifies 10 Acts Without Governor, President Assent After Supreme Court's Order; 1st State To Do So

Chennai: MK Stalin-led Tamil Nadu government on Saturday notified 10 Acts without receiving assent from either the Governor or the President. It is the first time that a state government notified Acts without the Governor's approval. With this, the Stalin government has removed all the hurdles in the appointment of vice-chancellors to the state universities.

The state government issued the notification a day after the Supreme Court uploaded its judgment. Notably, the apex court in its verdict invoked its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution and declared these bills deemed to have assented.

“The Hon’ble Supreme Court in its Order dated 08.04.2025 in W.P.(C) No.1239/2023 has ordered that all the action of the Hon’ble President after the date of reserving the above said Bill is non-est in law and shall be deemed to have been assented to by the Hon’ble Governor on the date on which the said Bill was presented to him for assent. Now, therefore, by virtue of the above-said orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India dated 08.04.2025, the said L.A. Bill No.48 of 2022 is deemed to have been assented by the Hon’ble Governor on the 18th November 2023," the Tamil Nadu Government's notification reads.

Copy Of The Order:

Notification issued by the Tamil Nadu Government

These acts empowered the state government to appoint the vice-chancellors to state universities. The Acts also give power to the state government to remove vice-chancellors on the grounds of wilful omission to execute the provision of the law.

Notably, RN Ravi withheld assent on these Acts and later forwarded them to President Droupadi Murmu.

DMK MP's Reaction:

DMK MP P Wilson said that the history has been created. “Pursuant to the order of the Hon. SC the Tamil Nadu Government has notified the 10 Acts on the Government Gazette and they come into force! History is made as these are the first Acts of any legislature in India to have taken effect without the signature of the Governor / President but on the strength of the judgement of the Supreme Court," Will said as reported by The Times of India.

"Our universities will now be cleansed and taken to a new level under the chancellorship of the Governo̶r̶ment! ,” he further said.

Supreme Court's April 8 Judgment Pulling Up Tamil Nadu Governor:

On April 8, the Supreme Court pulled up Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi for his decision to withhold assent to ten key Bills. The top court termed the decision “illegal" and “arbitrary".

A Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, passed the judgment. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin Welcomed the Supreme Court's verdict.

The bench stated that the Governor cannot reserve Bills for the President after withholding assent. "The action of the Governor to reserve the 10 bills for the President is illegal and arbitrary. Thus, the action is set aside. All actions taken by the Governor thereto for the 10 bills are set aside," the bench ruled as reported by NDTV. "These Bills shall be deemed to be cleared from the date it was re-presented to the Governor," it added.

The top court also observed that the governor did not act in "good faith". The top court said that the Bills were sent to the President after Ravi himself sat over them for a long time. It added that the Bills were reserved for the President after the Supreme Court's judgment in the Punjab Governor's case, reported Live Law.

Notably, in the Punjab Governor's case, the top court's judgment held that the governor cannot take a long time to send the bills to the President. The Bench said that under Article 200 of the Constitution, the governor does not possess any discretion and has to mandatorily act on the aid and advice of the council of ministers.

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