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Synopsis

Attorney General R Venkatramani has told the Supreme Court that all the 12 Bills stated by Tamil Nadu to be pending before the Governor has been disposed of. With regard to appointment in the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission, he pointed out there was no transparency in the selection process.

He also pointed out that since January, 2020, the Governor has received 181 Bills, out of which, as many as 152 were assented to, nine were reserved for the consideration of the President and 10 were withheld and five were under process.

"As on 16.11.2023, only five Bills which have been received in the month of October 2023, are under consideration. On 18.11.2023, a special session of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly was held and all the 10 Bills for which assent was withheld by the Hon’ble Governor, were reconsidered and passed in the Assembly. All the 10 Bills have been sent by the State Government to the Governor’s Secretariat on 18.11.2023," a note by the AG stated.

With regard to pending proposals for sanctions of prosecution, the Governor sought further details in one case and response was received on November 18. In two cases, sanction and permission were granted on November 13 and 18 respectively. One case is still under consideration, it said.

So far as the proposals for premature release of convicts were concerned, the note stated that out of 580 proposals, 362 were approved, 165 were rejected and 53 were still under examination.

"Out of the 53 pending proposals, two were received on 20th June, 2023, one on 4th August, 2023, one on 9th August, 2023 and remaining 49 were received on 24th August, 2023. All the pending proposals have been received recently," it said.

On proposals related to the appointment of Members of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission, the note stated that the Governor has observed that there is no transparency in the entire selection process.

"Further, he found that the person sought to be appointed as Chairman will have less than a year in office, if appointed. Moreover, one of the members recommended had been suspended for maladministration by the college where he was working as Associate Professor and the suspension was also upheld by the appellate authority," it said.

"As the concerns of the Governor in the manner of selection were not addressed by the Government, the concerned proposal had been returned back on 26.10.2023. Currently, this matter is not pending in the office of the Governor. However, it may be noted that the Governor has approved all the other proposals for appointment received from the Government," it said.

With regard to issue of Notification by the Governor regarding the Search Committee for the selection of Vice Chancellors in three State Universities, the note stated that written communications were sent to the Government to reconstitute the Search cum Selection Committee as per the Supreme Court judgment and UGC Regulations, 2018. 

"Since Government did not reconstitute the Committee as per UGC Regulations, despite repeated reminders, the Governor –Chancellor had no other option but to add the nominee of the UGC Chairman and reconstitute the Search cum Selection Committee and notify the same. In the case ofUniversity of Madras, Governor-Chancellor has added the UGC Chairman’s nominee and constituted the Search cum Selection Committee," it said.

On November 20, the Supreme Court had questioned Tamil Nadu's Governor over the delay in taking a decision on Bills sent for assent as early as January 2020, by asking as to what he was doing for three years.

In a writ petition, the DMK government claimed that the delay by the Governor had brought the entire administration to a grinding halt.

It also alleged that the Governor had positioned himself as a “political rival” to the legitimately elected government.