New Delhi: Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker M. Appavu said on Friday that he suspected that Governor R.N. Ravi, after which he returned a bill banning online gambling and regulating online games. He pointed out that the governor himself had promulgated an ordinance on the subject last year, but opted to return the bill, which was passed by the House with the same intent.
Speaking to reporters at his chamber in the Fort St George complex, Mr Appavu referred to media reports on the Governor meeting representatives of online gambling companies and said it was not known what transpired in their meeting.
Tamil Nadu government to bring new bill against online gambling
Asked who could possibly be the source of pressure on the governor, Mr. Appavu said, “I don’t know who the owners are in touch with and where the pressure on the governor originated”. He said that Law Minister S. Raghupati had to wait for a long time before getting an appointment with the Governor.
On Governor Ravi’s remarks questioning the legislative competence of the House to pass the bill, Mr. Appavu said, “He should have refrained from using such words. I do not know whether the governor used it on someone’s advice or it was his choice of words.
Citing the Governor’s draft amendment to the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s Information Technology (Intermediary Liability and Digital Media Code of Conduct) Rules, 2021, Mr Appavu said the Madras High Court in a judgment in 2021 had said that the state The government can bring a new law.
While the then Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu said in the Rajya Sabha in 2021 that online gambling was a “big threat” and that “skill games were deadly games”, the Union Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology said that betting and gambling List (Seventh Schedule of the Constitution), Mr. Appavu pointed out.
“If our Governor had read about all these [judgments of the Madras High Court and the statements made by the Vice President and the Union Minister in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha respectively] or if they had been brought to his notice, he could have seen them and Could have given assent to this Bill. It is not known whether it was taken into their cognizance,” Mr. Appavu said.
Mr. Appavu said that according to Article 200 of the Constitution, if a bill is passed by the House and sent, the Governor can either give assent or seek clarification or send it to the President, or withhold it Are. There was no other provision which allowed the Governor to say that the House did not have legislative competence. The Speaker said, “He could have avoided using words that bring disrepute to the House.”
