Five big controversial actions of Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi

Controversy and Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi are inseparable. Since taking over as the Constitutional Head of the State on September 18, 2021, several of his official actions and statements have triggered huge political rows.

Controversy and Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi are inseparable. Since taking over as the Constitutional Head of the State on September 18, 2021, several of his official actions and statements have triggered huge political rows. On several occasions, he has been pulled up by the Supreme Court. In the latest instance, on April 8, 2025, the apex court invoked powers to declare as many as 10 Bills on which he had delayed action, effectively approved. Here, we take a look at five big controversies involving Mr. Ravi. These do not include his contentious political positioning and views and the annual feature of refusing to read out the approved text of the Governor’s Customary Address to the House.

In April, 2023, Mr. Ravi proclaimed that when a Governor withholds assent to a Bill passed by the Assembly, it means the “Bill is dead”. He argued that the Supreme Court had defined withholding assent as “the Bill falling through”, implying the Bill is dead. “It is a decent language used of the word ‘reject’. When you say ‘withhold’, the Bill is dead,” he told civil service aspirants at the Raj Bhavan.

Back then, Congress veteran and former Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram had cryptically responded, “Actually when a Governor withholds assent for no valid reason, it means ‘Parliamentary Democracy is dead’.”

In November 2023, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, while dealing with the Punjab Governor’s case, held that the rejection of a Bill by a Governor does not mean its death. A law proposed by a State legislature is not extinguished merely because the Governor refuses to sign his assent, it said.

In February 2022, Governor Ravi returned to the Assembly Speaker the Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Bill 2021. The Bill had sought exemption from NEET-based admissions to MBBS/BDS courses and instead admit students on the basis of class 12 Board exam marks in government quota seats. The Bill was drafted on the recommendations of the Justice A.K. Rajan Committee. However, Mr. Ravi said the Committee’s report merely reflected “the jaundiced view” of the panel and the Bill was not in the interest of the students.

Ideally, in this case, he should have referred the Bill to the President as the proposed law was repugnant to a Central law mandating NEET-based admissions.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly, for the first time, re-adopted a Bill returned by the Governor, and sent it back to Raj Bhavan. This time, Mr. Ravi forwarded it to the President, who has since declined assent.