ON APRIL 8, minutes after the Supreme Court deemed Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi’s refusal to clear 10 state bills for over three years as arbitrary and illegal, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin was over the moon on his government’s “victory” against Ravi’s (in)action. He asked his party colleagues in the state assembly to “thump the desks” in gratitude to the apex court. “The Supreme Court judgment is not just a victory for Tamil Nadu, but for all state governments in India,” he said. “This is a historic verdict.”
While the opposition AIADMK and the BJP staged a walkout, Stalin asked DMK allies to join in the celebration. In the next few hours, he greeted DMK’s counsel and Rajya Sabha MP P. Wilson and his team at the party office. And within a couple of days, all 10 bills passed by the assembly were notified in the gazette. “The verdict enhances the administrative autonomy of the states and regulates the functioning of constitutional offices,” Wilson told THE WEEK. The judgment, he added, gave strength to state governments at a time when the Union was snatching away all their powers.
The Supreme Court’s judgment is expected to have a far-reaching impact on Centre-state relations, which has led all opposition-ruled states to rally behind Stalin and fight for state autonomy and India’s federal principles. The verdict, which also set timelines for the president and governors to clear bills, is seen not only as a legal milestone but also as a reinforcement of constitutional morality and cooperative federalism. The apex court had observed that a governor is expected to act as a “friend, philosopher, and guide” to the state cabinet, not as an agent of the Union government. The ruling, said Wilson, would change the way governors carry out their constitutional responsibilities. “The governor or the president cannot sit on the bills passed by the assembly for a long time,” he said.
The verdict has come as a blessing in disguise for the state government, which has been finding it difficult to administer the state-run universities. The governor’s authority to appoint and remove vice chancellors of the 13 state-run universities has now been stripped off and transferred to the state government. On April 16, Stalin made history by chairing the meeting of the vice chancellors and registrars of state-funded universities. “The role of governor as chancellor of universities has become politicised, and undermined the university autonomy. The court verdict is a huge relief as the administration of higher education institutions will not be at stake,” said educationist Prince Gajendrababu.
Bolstered by the verdict, Stalin is now going against the BJP-led Union government with guns blazing. A week after the verdict, he picked up the state autonomy weapon. Making an announcement under rule 110, he constituted a high-level panel to study the Centre-state relations and recommend measures to strengthen India’s federal structure. The panel, chaired by former Supreme Court judge Justice Kurian Joseph, will submit its interim report in January 2026 and the final report in two years.
The verdict is also a political victory for Stalin. Stalin and Ravi have been at loggerheads ever since the beginning of his term in 2021. Ravi would chair meetings of vice chancellors and registrars without consulting the state government, which funds the universities. The meetings came under sharp criticism by educationists and the state government as Ravi used it as a platform to ask vice chancellors and registrars to implement the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which is being opposed by the state.
“Our chief minister will not stop here. His fight for autonomy of the states and federal rights will continue,” Rajiv Gandhi, DMK’s student wing secretary and spokesperson, told THE WEEK. “Be it the language policy issue, NEP 2020, our resistance to NEET exams or our demand for fair delimitation, our fight will continue. Our chief minister will show the way for other opposition-ruled states.”
The anti-NEET bill, which was brought in the state assembly in 2021 and readopted in 2023, has been sent to the president by the governor. “Our leader had already convened and met with the legislative party leaders of all parties to proceed legally in our fight against NEET,” said Gandhi. The panel constituted by Stalin to recommend state rights, he added, would show the way to bring education from the concurrent list to the state list. “After Stalin took over, politics in India has become state versus Union, more specifically it is Stalin versus Modi,” said Gandhi. “The BJP calls it separatism. But it is a call for federal rights.”
However, Ravi is not likely to back down. Two days after the verdict, he continued to point out the errors of the state government. Addressing an event at a private college in Madurai, he asked students to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ as a way to honour poet Kambar, who had penned the Ramayan in Tamil. Kambar is revered as an icon of Tamil literature, and not just as a poet who wrote the Tamil version of the epic. On April 14, while presiding over the celebrations of Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s birth anniversary, he commented on the educational skills of dalit students in government schools. He even criticised the government’s scheme to provide a cash dole of Rs1,000 to college students. “This money will not help to improve the skills of the students,” he said.
Sources in the Raj Bhavan said that both Ravi and the Union government would continue with their no-holds-barred attack on Stalin and the DMK. With regard to the universities, sources said that the governor would not give up his role as chancellor even when the bills have stripped off his powers. “Many of the vice chancellors have been appointed by him directly and they will only follow his instructions,” a source close to the Raj Bhavan told THE WEEK. “This will only cripple the functioning of the universities. The governor was intervening in the affairs only to ensure better administration and quality higher education. He will not give up.”
A battle, perhaps, has been won, but the Centre-state war is far from over.