The Evening Wrap: SC says T.N. Governor’s indefinite holding back of bills a matter of concern

The Supreme Court on Friday said the “constitutional deadlock” created by Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi by inexplicably delaying or even failing to consider and assent to 12 crucial Bills passed by the Legislature and stymieing day-to-day governance in a way which is threatening to bring administration in the State to a grinding halt was a “serious concern”. A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud issued formal notice to the Union of India through the Home Ministry to respond to the Tamil Nadu government’s petition that the Governor was acting in a manner which “defeats the rights of the people” of the State to welfare legislation. The court asked the Attorney General of India, or in his absence, the Solicitor General of India to be present in court on November 20 even as Tamil Nadu, represented by senior advocates A.M. Singhvi and P. Wilson, said the Governor was even holding back files seeking sanction for prosecution of public servants in corruption cases, pleas for premature release of prisoners and appointments to the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC). Wilson submitted that there was “not a word” from the Governor on any of these files or Bills, which related to subjects from public health, higher education, etc. The court, in its short order, highlighted that the Article 200 of the Constitution mandated the Governor to act “as soon as possible” when Bills, passed by the State Legislature, were presented to him for declaration of assent. Chief Justice Chandrachud orally observed that the Governor could either give his assent, withhold assent in which case, if the Bills were not Money Bills, return the Bills to the House suggesting modifications/amendments or refer the proposed laws to the President. The court said the Governor could not just sit on them indefinitely. “The Bills have been pending since January 2020 till now. We have been begging him to consider them. We have been begging him to grant sanction for prosecution. We have been begging him for remission… He is doing nothing,” Singhvi said. Wilson said 10 of the 14 posts in the TNPSC, including that of the Chairperson, were vacant. There are four files for prosecution sanction forwarded to the Governor between April 2022 and May 2023. The State said the Governor had positioned himself as a political rival to the legitimately elected government. The Governor’s inactions had caused an impasse between the constitutional head of the State and the elected government of the State. The Governor was toying away with the citizen’s mandate, the petition said. “The Governor by not signing remission orders, day-to-day files, appointment orders, approving recruitment orders, granting approval to prosecute Ministers, MLAs involved in corruption including transfer of investigation to CBI by Supreme Court and Bills passed by Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is bringing the entire administration to a grinding halt and creating adversarial attitude by not cooperating with the State administration,” the State government said in its petition, filed through advocate Sabarish Subramanian. The State urged the Supreme Court to declare the “inaction, omission, delay and failure to comply with the constitutional mandate by the Governor of Tamil Nadu” as illegal and arbitrary. The “unreasonable malafide exercise of power” by the Governor to neither consider Bills passed and forwarded to him by the State Legislature for his assent was unconstitutional. “’Assent’ of the Governor/President does not involve any element of discretion of the individuals occupying the posts but the ‘assent’ should only be based on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers,” the State reminded. The State sought the Supreme Court to fix a deadline or an “outer time limit” for Ravi to consider the Bills and government orders pending with his office. The State accused the Governor of “politically motivated conduct” for denying sanction to probe authorities in corruption cases against public servants despite finding prima facie evidence against them. “This includes the CBI inquiry that the Supreme Court approved and that the Madras High Court ordered,” the petition said. It said a delegation of elected representatives led by the State Law Minister had to meet the President to hand over a letter of the Chief Minister seeking her intervention to direct the Governor to conduct himself in accordance with the Constitution. As morning showers lash Delhi, Supreme Court says people can only pray as governments work out schemes to combat pollution Giving thanks for the timely rain which washed the smog out of the capital’s skies on Friday, the Supreme Court said that residents are left to pray for mercy even as government schemes to quell air pollution on the basis of reports, theories, and commissions have made little change in the ground situation. “God may have provided some relief… must have heard our prayers in the morning… We are not looking at anything here but ground-level implementation,” Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, heading a three-judge Bench, observed. The hearing, which seemed to coincide with the skies opening up, saw the Delhi government insisting on the efficacy of its Odd-Even scheme to control vehicular pollution in the city by reducing congestion on the capital’s roads. It said that the court’s suggestion to ban app-based taxis registered outside Delhi from entering the capital may cause a problem for commuters. “Do not try to non-perform and shift the burden on the court. People are indeed affected. Odd-Even does not help. It has not proved to help… You are now saying that you will implement the Odd-Even scheme and also impose the scheme on taxis… Did we ask you to implement Odd-Even of taxis? We did not ask you,” Justice Kaul shot back. The court said that it was left to the government to work out schemes to bring down the pollution, noting that the government could not depend on Supreme Court orders. Meanwhile, what the population can do is pray,” Justice Kaul said. The court confronted the State’s stand that the Odd-Even scheme was not mere “optics” and that it has led to a 13% reduction in pollution. “But not everybody will have two cars. Odd-Even does not apply to two-wheelers. So, according to your scheme, a person should have two cars, one numbered odd and other even, or a car and a two-wheeler. That’s your scheme. You do what you want,” Justice Kaul told the State government. Turning to the Centre and the Punjab governments, the court said that stubble fires have to be stopped even if “somebody has to walk on coal” for that. Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah said that the court could pass an order for officials to “work in the open without masks” to experience for themselves the real extent of the health problems created by stubble-burning. He even suggested “attaching the property” of the people who start fires despite warnings from the authorities. Justice Kaul, however, said that farmers too were part of society, responsible for its welfare. There was no point registering first information reports (FIRs) against violators, for they would be withdrawn eventually, he added. The court asked the Centre, represented by Attorney General R. Venkataramani, about its suggestion to slowly phase out paddy from Punjab as a long-term measure to save its dipping water table and stop fires. Venkataramani said that such a step would affect the entire country and could not be considered in isolation. “We are not saying rice should be closed one fine day. We had suggested it as a long term measure,” Justice Kaul responded. He added that nobody would be willing to switch over from paddy to another crop unless there were incentives offered. “They are also worried about their two bits,” he said. “You have to act. What will you do if somebody sets fire to stubble despite your norms and machinery… We are only flagging the issues. We are not calling for the demolition of Minimum Support Price for paddy. We want to know what you are doing for the slow phasing out of paddy from Punjab,” Justice Kaul observed. Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh said that the State was taking up the issue of stubble-burning on a “war front”. Police patrols and fire men were patrolling the State, extinguishing farm blazes. “We have reduced farm fires by one-third. Thousands of fires have been extinguished,” he said. While the Centre and Punjab governments assured the court that they would “fully endeavour” to take steps to ameliorate the situation, the court warned that it could even ask the secretaries concerned to come over and “keep them here till they find a solution”. India, U.S. hold 2+2 ministerial dialogue with focus on Indo-Pacific, critical minerals and global challenges India and the U.S. on November 10 held extensive deliberations to further expand their global strategic partnership through greater defence and industrial ties, enhancing engagement in the Indo-Pacific, and boosting cooperation in key areas such as critical minerals and high-technology. The U.S. delegation at the 2+2 ministerial talks was led by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh headed the Indian side. “Our dialogue today will be an opportunity to advance the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden to build a forward-looking partnership and construct a shared global agenda,” Jaishankar said in his televised opening remarks. “We are exploring cooperation in new domains such as critical technologies, collaboration in civil outer space and in areas of critical minerals,” he said. In his remarks, Blinken said both sides are promoting a free and open, prosperous, secure and resilient Indo-Pacific including by strengthening the U.S.-India partnership through the Quad. He said the focus is to bolster the partnership in international peace, security and specifically working to promote rules-based order, uphold principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. In his opening comments, Singh said the India-U.S. bilateral relationship has seen a growing interest in strategic convergence and enhanced defence cooperation. “Defence cooperation remains one of the most important pillars of our bilateral relationship,” he said. “We look forward to closely working with the U.S. across domains of capability building,” Singh said. Media workers stage sit-in at New York Times headquarters to call for ceasefire in Gaza Pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupied the lobby of The New York Times on Thursday, demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza while accusing the media of showing a bias toward Israel in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the publication’s Manhattan headquarters. Many entered the building’s atrium for a sit-in and vigil that lasted more than an hour. Led by a group of media workers calling themselves “Writers Bloc,” demonstrators read off the names of thousands of Palestinians killed in Gaza, including at least 36 journalists whose deaths have been confirmed since the war began. They scattered editions of a mock newspaper — “The New York War Crimes” — that charged the media with “complicity in laundering genocide” and called on the Times’ editorial board to publicly back a ceasefire. The sit-in followed a series of actions at high-profile locations in New York intended to bring attention to the growing death toll in Gaza. On Tuesday, activists with the group Jewish Voice for Peace briefly took over the Statue of Liberty. The week prior, hundreds of people packed into Grand Central Terminal, shutting down the commuting hub during rush hour while hoisting banners that read “Ceasefire Now.” More than 10,800 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory, since the October 7 massacre by Hamas, which took the lives of at least 1,400 people in Israel. It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was arrested during the Thursday sit-in. An email sent to New York Times staffers by the publication’s head of corporate security described the protest as “peaceful,” noting that “no entrances are blocked.” In Brief: ED seizes $3 million property from Hero MotoCorp’s Munjal The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it has attached assets worth ₹24.95 crore of Hero MotoCorp executive chairperson Pawan Kant Munjal as part of a money laundering investigation against him. Three immovable properties of Munjal located in Delhi have been provisionally attached under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the central agency said in a statement. Munjal, it said, is the CMD and Chairman of Hero MotoCorp Ltd and the assets are worth about ₹24.95 crore. The ED had carried out raids against Munjal and his companies in August after filing a PMLA case against him that was filed after taking cognisance of a Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) charge sheet that accused him of taking foreign exchange/currency out of India illegally. PM Modi to attend COP-28 in Dubai; to host G-20 summit virtually Prime Minister Narendra Modi will likely be present at the 28th edition of the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) to begin end of the November in Dubai. The annual climate conference is the most high profile summit to discuss the challenges from climate change and the roles and responsibilities of the world’s governments in addressing it. PM Modi is likely to be present on December 1, sources said, when heads of State from several countries are expected to make statements. COP-28 begins on November 30, and will go on till December 12. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 10 November 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Tamil Nadu Governor’s indefinite holding back of Bills a matter of ‘serious concern’, says Supreme Court The Supreme Court on Friday said the “constitutional deadlock” created by Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi by inexplicably delaying or even failing to consider and assent to 12 crucial Bills passed by the Legislature and stymieing day-to-day governance in a way which is threatening to bring administration in the State to a grinding halt [was a “serious concern”](. A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud issued formal notice to the Union of India through the Home Ministry to respond to the Tamil Nadu government’s petition that the Governor was acting in a manner which “defeats the rights of the people” of the State to welfare legislation. The court asked the Attorney General of India, or in his absence, the Solicitor General of India to be present in court on November 20 even as Tamil Nadu, represented by senior advocates A.M. Singhvi and P. Wilson, said the Governor was even holding back files seeking sanction for prosecution of public servants in corruption cases, pleas for premature release of prisoners and appointments to the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC). Wilson submitted that there was “not a word” from the Governor on any of these files or Bills, which related to subjects from public health, higher education, etc. The court, in its short order, highlighted that the Article 200 of the Constitution mandated the Governor to act “as soon as possible” when Bills, passed by the State Legislature, were presented to him for declaration of assent. Chief Justice Chandrachud orally observed that the Governor could either give his assent, withhold assent in which case, if the Bills were not Money Bills, return the Bills to the House suggesting modifications/amendments or refer the proposed laws to the President. The court said the Governor could not just sit on them indefinitely. “The Bills have been pending since January 2020 till now. We have been begging him to consider them. We have been begging him to grant sanction for prosecution. We have been begging him for remission… He is doing nothing,” Singhvi said. Wilson said 10 of the 14 posts in the TNPSC, including that of the Chairperson, were vacant. There are four files for prosecution sanction forwarded to the Governor between April 2022 and May 2023.  The State said the Governor had positioned himself as a political rival to the legitimately elected government. The Governor’s inactions had caused an impasse between the constitutional head of the State and the elected government of the State. The Governor was toying away with the citizen’s mandate, the petition said. “The Governor by not signing remission orders, day-to-day files, appointment orders, approving recruitment orders, granting approval to prosecute Ministers, MLAs involved in corruption including transfer of investigation to CBI by Supreme Court and Bills passed by Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is bringing the entire administration to a grinding halt and creating adversarial attitude by not cooperating with the State administration,” the State government said in its petition, filed through advocate Sabarish Subramanian. The State urged the Supreme Court to declare the “inaction, omission, delay and failure to comply with the constitutional mandate by the Governor of Tamil Nadu” as illegal and arbitrary. The “unreasonable malafide exercise of power” by the Governor to neither consider Bills passed and forwarded to him by the State Legislature for his assent was unconstitutional. “’Assent’ of the Governor/President does not involve any element of discretion of the individuals occupying the posts but the ‘assent’ should only be based on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers,” the State reminded. The State sought the Supreme Court to fix a deadline or an “outer time limit” for Ravi to consider the Bills and government orders pending with his office. The State accused the Governor of “politically motivated conduct” for denying sanction to probe authorities in corruption cases against public servants despite finding prima facie evidence against them. “This includes the CBI inquiry that the Supreme Court approved and that the Madras High Court ordered,” the petition said. It said a delegation of elected representatives led by the State Law Minister had to meet the President to hand over a letter of the Chief Minister seeking her intervention to direct the Governor to conduct himself in accordance with the Constitution. As morning showers lash Delhi, Supreme Court says people can only pray as governments work out schemes to combat pollution Giving thanks for the timely rain which washed the smog out of the capital’s skies on Friday, the [Supreme Court said that residents are left to pray for mercy]( even as government schemes to quell air pollution on the basis of reports, theories, and commissions have made little change in the ground situation. “God may have provided some relief… must have heard our prayers in the morning… We are not looking at anything here but ground-level implementation,” Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, heading a three-judge Bench, observed. The hearing, which seemed to coincide with the skies opening up, saw the Delhi government insisting on the efficacy of its Odd-Even scheme to control vehicular pollution in the city by reducing congestion on the capital’s roads. It said that the court’s suggestion to ban app-based taxis registered outside Delhi from entering the capital may cause a problem for commuters. “Do not try to non-perform and shift the burden on the court. People are indeed affected. Odd-Even does not help. It has not proved to help… You are now saying that you will implement the Odd-Even scheme and also impose the scheme on taxis… Did we ask you to implement Odd-Even of taxis? We did not ask you,” Justice Kaul shot back. The court said that it was left to the government to work out schemes to bring down the pollution, noting that the government could not depend on Supreme Court orders. Meanwhile, what the population can do is pray,” Justice Kaul said. The court confronted the State’s stand that the Odd-Even scheme was not mere “optics” and that it has led to a 13% reduction in pollution. “But not everybody will have two cars. Odd-Even does not apply to two-wheelers. So, according to your scheme, a person should have two cars, one numbered odd and other even, or a car and a two-wheeler. That’s your scheme. You do what you want,” Justice Kaul told the State government. Turning to the Centre and the Punjab governments, the court said that stubble fires have to be stopped even if “somebody has to walk on coal” for that. Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah said that the court could pass an order for officials to “work in the open without masks” to experience for themselves the real extent of the health problems created by stubble-burning. He even suggested “attaching the property” of the people who start fires despite warnings from the authorities. Justice Kaul, however, said that farmers too were part of society, responsible for its welfare. There was no point registering first information reports (FIRs) against violators, for they would be withdrawn eventually, he added. The court asked the Centre, represented by Attorney General R. Venkataramani, about its suggestion to slowly phase out paddy from Punjab as a long-term measure to save its dipping water table and stop fires. Venkataramani said that such a step would affect the entire country and could not be considered in isolation. “We are not saying rice should be closed one fine day. We had suggested it as a long term measure,” Justice Kaul responded. He added that nobody would be willing to switch over from paddy to another crop unless there were incentives offered. “They are also worried about their two bits,” he said. “You have to act. What will you do if somebody sets fire to stubble despite your norms and machinery… We are only flagging the issues. We are not calling for the demolition of Minimum Support Price for paddy. We want to know what you are doing for the slow phasing out of paddy from Punjab,” Justice Kaul observed. Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh said that the State was taking up the issue of stubble-burning on a “war front”. Police patrols and fire men were patrolling the State, extinguishing farm blazes. “We have reduced farm fires by one-third. Thousands of fires have been extinguished,” he said. While the Centre and Punjab governments assured the court that they would “fully endeavour” to take steps to ameliorate the situation, the court warned that it could even ask the secretaries concerned to come over and “keep them here till they find a solution”. India, U.S. hold 2+2 ministerial dialogue with focus on Indo-Pacific, critical minerals and global challenges India and the U.S. on November 10 held extensive deliberations to further expand their global strategic partnership through greater defence and industrial ties, enhancing engagement in the Indo-Pacific, and boosting cooperation in key areas such as critical minerals and high-technology. The U.S. delegation at the [2+2 ministerial talks]( was led by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh headed the Indian side. “Our dialogue today will be an opportunity to advance the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden to build a forward-looking partnership and construct a shared global agenda,” Jaishankar said in his televised opening remarks. “We are exploring cooperation in new domains such as critical technologies, collaboration in civil outer space and in areas of critical minerals,” he said. In his remarks, Blinken said both sides are promoting a free and open, prosperous, secure and resilient Indo-Pacific including by strengthening the U.S.-India partnership through the Quad. He said the focus is to bolster the partnership in international peace, security and specifically working to promote rules-based order, uphold principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. In his opening comments, Singh said the India-U.S. bilateral relationship has seen a growing interest in strategic convergence and enhanced defence cooperation. “Defence cooperation remains one of the most important pillars of our bilateral relationship,” he said. “We look forward to closely working with the U.S. across domains of capability building,” Singh said. Media workers stage sit-in at New York Times headquarters to call for ceasefire in Gaza [Pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupied the lobby of The New York Times]( on Thursday, demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza while accusing the media of showing a bias toward Israel in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the publication’s Manhattan headquarters. Many entered the building’s atrium for a sit-in and vigil that lasted more than an hour. Led by a group of media workers calling themselves “Writers Bloc,” demonstrators read off the names of thousands of Palestinians killed in Gaza, including at least 36 journalists whose deaths have been confirmed since the war began. They scattered editions of a mock newspaper — “The New York War Crimes” — that charged the media with “complicity in laundering genocide” and called on the Times’ editorial board to publicly back a ceasefire. The sit-in followed a series of actions at high-profile locations in New York intended to bring attention to the growing death toll in Gaza. On Tuesday, activists with the group Jewish Voice for Peace briefly took over the Statue of Liberty. The week prior, hundreds of people packed into Grand Central Terminal, shutting down the commuting hub during rush hour while hoisting banners that read “Ceasefire Now.” More than 10,800 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory, since the October 7 massacre by Hamas, which took the lives of at least 1,400 people in Israel. It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was arrested during the Thursday sit-in. An email sent to New York Times staffers by the publication’s head of corporate security described the protest as “peaceful,” noting that “no entrances are blocked.” In Brief: ED seizes $3 million property from Hero MotoCorp’s Munjal The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it has [attached assets worth ₹24.95 crore of Hero MotoCorp executive chairperson Pawan Kant Munjal]( as part of a money laundering investigation against him. Three immovable properties of Munjal located in Delhi have been provisionally attached under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the central agency said in a statement. Munjal, it said, is the CMD and Chairman of Hero MotoCorp Ltd and the assets are worth about ₹24.95 crore. The ED had carried out raids against Munjal and his companies in August after filing a PMLA case against him that was filed after taking cognisance of a Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) charge sheet that accused him of taking foreign exchange/currency out of India illegally. PM Modi to attend COP-28 in Dubai; to host G-20 summit virtually Prime Minister [Narendra Modi will likely be present at the 28th edition of the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP)]( begin end of the November in Dubai. The annual climate conference is the most high profile summit to discuss the challenges from climate change and the roles and responsibilities of the world’s governments in addressing it. PM Modi is likely to be present on December 1, sources said, when heads of State from several countries are expected to make statements. COP-28 begins on November 30, and will go on till December 12. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [Sign up for free]( Today’s Top Picks [[I&B Ministry introduces draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2023] I&B Ministry introduces draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2023]( [[Shaking off post-defeat somnolence, BJP appoints Vijayendra as party chief in Karnataka] Shaking off post-defeat somnolence, BJP appoints Vijayendra as party chief in Karnataka]( [[Industrial output growth slides to three-month low] Industrial output growth slides to three-month low]( [[Dhanush to play Ilaiyaraaja in legendary composer’s biopic] Dhanush to play Ilaiyaraaja in legendary composer’s biopic]( Copyright @ 2023, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. If you are facing any trouble in viewing this newsletter, please [try here]( Manage your newsletter subscription preferences [here]( If you do not wish to receive such emails [go here](