Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi. File | Photo Credit: M. Periasamy The Supreme Court on Friday (February 7, 2025) asked whether Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi referred 10 Bills re-passed by the State Legislature to the President to avoid having to give his consent to them.  A Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan questioned Attorney-General of India (AG) R. Venkataramani if the Governor had referred the re-passed Bills to the President for consideration only to circumvent the procedure under the first proviso of Article 200 (Governor’s assent of Bills) of the Constitution. Under Article 200, a Governor has three options when Bills are sent to him for assent. That is, either to give assent, withhold assent or refer the Bills to the President for consideration. Tamil Nadu government has argued that a Governor can refer a Bill to the President only in case of any ‘repugnancy’ under Article 254, that is, if the proposed State law is found to be inconsistent with or encroaches into an existing Central law or if the Bill …