Game of Bills: TN government proposes, legislature passes, Governor stalls

The DMK has been demanding that the Governor be recalled

Emerging from a meeting with the Governor on December 1, Tamil Nadu Law Minister S Regupathy expressed the hope that R N Ravi would soon give his assent to a bill banning online gambling and regulating online games. The minister also said the government has clarified all doubts raised by the governor with regard to the bill passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly on October 19.

Twenty-two days have since passed, but the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Bill, 2022, is still lying at the Raj Bhawan, which is tucked inside a reserve forest in the heart of Chennai.

Though 20 other bills, passed by the state assembly since 2020, are pending before Ravi, the “delay” in signing the legislation seeking to ban online gambling into law has gained significance because of the sensitivities attached to it. At least three people have ended their lives in the past 45 days in Tamil Nadu after losing money while playing online, bringing the number of such deaths in the past year to 30.

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Though Chief Minister Stalin is believed to have asked ministers not to criticise the governor, the DMK has been on the offensive against Ravi not just on the issue of pending bills but also for his controversial statements on several issues, including Sanathana Dharma and Thirukkural. Murasoli, the DMK’s mouthpiece, has been consistent in its attack against the governor.

The party, which has an ideological aversion to the governor’s post, has been demanding that Ravi be recalled; it has submitted a petition in this regard to President Draupadi Murmu.

After his office received the online gambling bill on October 28, Governor Ravi wrote to the government in November seeking clarification on three specific issues. Regupathy said the government clarified the doubts of the governor and sent its response to his office within a few days, but maintained that Ravi cannot be pressured to give his assent.

The governor, apart from seeking opinions from legal experts, also met with representatives of the E-Gaming Federation earlier this month, leading to a massive row. While Raj Bhavan did not comment, sources told DH that the governor is seized of the matter and will act accordingly.

They also said the issue of online gambling isn’t restricted to Tamil Nadu alone, and any decision taken by the governor will have to keep in mind the previous verdicts given by various high courts in the country.

Sources in the government said the bill was drafted based on input provided by a high-level committee headed by retired Justice K Chandru after interacting with a cross-section of people. The Bill says no online games provider shall provide online gambling service or allow playing of any online game-of-chance specified with money or other stakes or playing of any other online game in contravention of the regulations, in any form.

They explained that the government, considering the importance of the subject and its sensitive nature, issued an Ordinance banning online gambling on October 1, which the governor signed within two days. Since the assembly session convened in mid-October, the sources said, the Ordinance was published in the gazette, though no Government Order was issued.

However, the bill has now been pending with the governor for the past two months. “The governor has every right to raise questions, and we have replied immediately with regard to every bill. In the case of the gambling bill, the law minister met the governor in person and clarified his doubts. If the assent is delayed even after so much effort from the government, it can safely be assumed that the reasons aren’t legal but plain political,” a senior government functionary told DH.

D Ravikumar, general secretary of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) and Villupuram MP, said the governor and his handlers in the Union government should accept responsibility for the deaths of innocent people who fall victim to online gambling. He also questioned the delay in giving assent to other bills, saying the governor should act within the Constitution by heeding the advice of the Cabinet.

“Governors in opposition-ruled states don’t act on their own. They execute the orders of the Union government, which seems determined on creating troubles for non-BJP governments. Ravi is no exception. He should have cleared the bill as it directly affects the people. But he didn’t, and the reason is the Union Government,” he told DH.

However, TN BJP Vice President Narayanan Thirupathy accused the DMK of playing a “dual game” on the issue. “Why wasn’t the Ordinance operationalised? Was it because the DMK government anticipated some legal issues? If so, the same legal issues will persist even now. The governor has no timeframe to decide on bills, and he has every right to take time to decide on an issue,” he said. Having said that, Thirupathy added, it is for the governor and the government to sort out the issue.

He also said that of the 20 other bills that are pending, 12 are related to appointments to universities, and the DMK raises its voice because the governor decides on vice chancellors on merit, leaving no “room for corruption.”

Senior journalist R Bhagwan Singh said the governor has “no business” to sit on such a “non-controversial bill” that seeks to ban online gambling. “There could have been no sharper slap than the indictment by the Supreme Court on the inordinate delay by the TN governor in deciding on the cabinet recommendation to release all seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The SC clearly said the governor is bound by the Cabinet’s decision, but the governor seems to have learned no lessons,” Singh added.