Stalin slams BJP for seeking SC view on deadlines for Guv

Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on Thursday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government over the presidential reference questioning the April 8 Supreme Court verdict that laid down a timeline for the President and governors to decide on state bills, saying it reveals a sinister intent.

- Divya Chandrababu

CHENNAI:

President Droupadi Murmu exercised a rare constitutional provision and sought the SC's advisory opinion on 14 questions to settle the law on whether the President and governors need to follow timelines to decide on state bills referred for consent when the Constitution does not prescribe it.

In a post on X, Stalin said the questions raised in the reference reveal the BJP-led central government's "sinister intent" to distort the Constitution's basic distribution of powers and incapacitate the state legislatures dominated by parties opposed to the ruling party at the Centre. "Thus, it poses a clear exigent threat to State autonomy," Stalin said. He vowed to continue to fight on the issue.

The chief minister said the presidential reference attempts to subvert the constitutional position settled by the Supreme Court in the Tamil Nadu governor's case. "This attempt [reference] clearly exposes the fact that the Tamil Nadu governor acted at the BJP's behest to undermine the people's mandate," Stalin said. "This is nothing but a desperate attempt to weaken democratically elected state governments by placing them under the control of governors serving as agents of the Union government. It also directly challenges the majesty of law and the authority of the Supreme Court as the final interpreter of the Constitution."