Won't rest until deadline set for Governors: Stalin

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin on Friday said the state’s campaign to secure fixed timelines for Governors to clear Bills would intensify and they would not rest until the Constitution was amended to enforce such limits.

Reacting for the first time to the Supreme Court’s advisory opinion on the Presidential Reference, Stalin said, “Our fight for state rights and true federalism will continue.”

In a detailed statement, he maintained that the SC's advisory opinion would not alter the Supreme Court’s April 8, 2025, judgment in the ‘State of Tamil Nadu vs Governor of Tamil Nadu’, which had addressed the Governor’s delays in assenting to Bills passed by the Assembly.

Stalin said the Bench, in its advisory view, had reaffirmed a core constitutional principle that the elected government should be in the driver’s seat and that there cannot be two executive power centres in the state.

Stalin asserted that the Governor could not indefinitely stall legislation, adding, “The Governor has no fourth option to kill the Bill or exercise a pocket veto (as was done by the Tamil Nadu Governor). He has no option to withhold the Bill simpliciter.”