Supreme Court smacks down BJP-appointed governors

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

Supreme Court smacks down BJP-appointed governors

Anatomy of an assent: After a bill is passed by the state legislature, the Governor has to assent for it to become law. Money bills—which deal with matters of government finance, such as taxation, borrowing, or spending—are the only exception to this rule and receive automatic assent. When the bill reaches the Governor, he can do one of four things: give assent, withhold assent, send it back to the legislature for reconsideration, or pass it upstream to the President who makes the call.

When there is no assent: This is what must happen when the Governor withholds assent:

If the Governor chooses to withhold assent, he should return the Bill ‘as soon as possible,’ requesting the Assembly to reconsider the proposed law or any specified provisions or suggest amendments. However, the Assembly is not obligated to accept these recommendations and can pass the Bill again in its original form. This time, the Governor is constitutionally bound to give assent to it and does not enjoy the discretion to refer it to the President.

In other words, if the legislature ignores the Governor’s objections—and once again votes in favour of the bill—it must become law.

But, but, but: There’s a big fat legal loophole. There is no time limit within which a Governor has to decide what to do with a bill—they can just sit on it indefinitely—an underhand tactic called ‘pocket veto’. Btw, the same is true for the President. OTOH, a legislature must pass a bill if the Governor sends it back for reconsideration.

What happened in Tamil Nadu: Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi has been sitting on twelve Bills sent to him between January 2020 and April 2023. Tired of waiting, the legislature once again passed the Bills and approached the Supreme Court. At this time, Ravi quickly referred two Bills to the President—but did nothing about the others.

What are these bills? They mainly focus on higher education—including administration of certain universities, amendments to the selection process for vice-chancellors etc. So why is Ravi blocking them?

Collectively, these Bills represented a quiet but pointed challenge to the Governor’s traditional control over public universities — one of the few remaining spheres where Governors retain substantial influence despite holding a largely ceremonial position under the Constitution.

Everything is political: Of course, the underlying conflict is between the BJP-ruled Centre and DMK-ruled Tamil Nadu. The governors are appointed by New Delhi—and are often used by ruling parties to undermine opposition-ruled state governments. Indira Gandhi was the queen of this kind of underhanded politicking. So TN is hardly an isolated case. The Supreme Court recently scolded governors of Bengal and Punjab for similar pocket veto tactics.

What the Supreme Court said: Tamil Nadu got what it wanted and more. The Court declared that Ravi’s actions were “illegal and liable to be set aside.” The reason: It is quintessentially undemocratic:

[T]he Governor must be conscious to not create roadblocks or chokehold the state legislature in order to thwart and break the will of the people for political edge. The members of the state legislature, having been elected by the people of the state as an outcome of the democratic expression, are better attuned to ensure the well-being of the people of the state. Hence, any action contrary to the express choice of the people, in other words, the state legislature, would be a renege of the Constitutional oath.

The Court went on to set strict time limits for all state Governors—an entirely new set of constraints on their powers:

The governor has only one month to decide to withhold assent and refer the bill to the President.
If the Governor suggests reconsideration or amendments instead—they must send the bill back to the legislature within three months.
If the legislature once again passes the bill and sends it back to the Governor, he must assent to it within a month.

What is notable: The Court invoked a rarely used Article 142 of the Constitution—which gives it “extraordinary power to pass orders to do ‘complete justice’.”

The outcome: All ten bills have been approved—and the ‘pocket veto’ is now mercifully consigned to the dustbin. Hopefully, the other governors—in Bengal, Kerala and Punjab—got the memo, as well.

Why do you care: The governors were using a loophole to prevent the state legislature from doing what it is elected to do—i.e make laws.

Reading list: The Hindu has the ruling. The Print is best on the new timelines. Indian Express explains why this ruling is unusual.

The world's largest wildlife bridge is here!

A new bridge is being built over a 10-lane highway near Los Angeles—not for people or cars—but for wild animals. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing will soon be the largest such bridge in the world.

The basic deets: The overpass is 210 feet long and 174 feet wide that will offer unfettered passage to “a wide range of species big and small, from bobcats, coyotes… to black bears… skunks… and California bats, not to mention… crocodile lizards.” It links two parts of the surrounding Santa Monica mountains—that were split by highways and urban sprawl. The bridge is expected to be completed by late 2026.

What makes it special: Traditional wildlife overpasses are made of concrete and steel. But this bridge mimics its natural environment—and includes:

12-foot-high sound walls to block out light and highway noise
Soil biologically matched to the region, rich in fungi and microbes to support long-term growth
Over 5,000 native plants
Measures to discourage human use, including poison oak

When fully built, it’s going to look like this:

Why this matters: One million wild animals die per day from collisions with road vehicles. Wildlife bridges are literally a lifesaver:

“Ten years ago, wildlife bridges were experimental. We didn’t know whether they would work or not. Now they’ve shown they get huge reductions in collisions. In some cases, 85% to 99% reductions,” says Rob Ament, a road ecology expert at Montana State University.

Lovely quote to note: This is how The Guardian sums up the achievement:

The crossing is not just a structure — it is also a symbol of the connection between humans and their wildlife, even in one of the most urban areas in the country. “It’s not just a bridge that cars drive over,” says Pratt. “This is a real extension of the Santa Monica mountains ecosystem. And to me, that’s hopeful – even a freeway is redeemable.”

The Guardian and New York Times offer details on the Annenberg Crossing, The Guardian also has more on similar “ecoducts” around the world.

A new cheetah controversy in Kuno

The context: As part of the Cheetah Project, the government relocated a total of 20 cheetahs from Africa to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Over the past two and a half years, eight out of the 20—including three cubs—have died due to kidney failure, mating injuries and even starvation and dehydration—raising red flags about the project. At present, Kuno is home to 26 cheetahs—with 17 in the wild and nine in protective enclosures.

What happened now: On Sunday, a video of a man went viral. He was giving water in a steel bowl to a cheetah named Jwala and her four cubs. You can see the clip below:

While the vid was celebrated online as “heartwarming”, the Park authorities have started disciplinary action against the man—who is “one of the drivers [a daily wager] of the vehicle hired for the duties of forest department.” The reason: “Only authorised persons can go in close proximity to cheetahs to perform a specific task.”

The big irony alert: While the Kuno babus are busy being bureaucratic about a bowl of water, Jwala and her cubs face a far greater peril:

The female cheetah, Jwala, and her cubs were roaming near the Sheopur-Gwalior railway line when they spotted a herd of calves. In a bid to satisfy their hunger, the cheetahs targeted one of the calves. However, the sight of the hunt quickly drew a crowd of villagers, who surrounded the cheetahs and began aggressively throwing stones and waving sticks at them. The sudden attack caused the cheetahs, already under stress from the hunt, to flee into the forest.

Right now, there are three female cheetahs and their cubs roaming the forests of Kuno. This is the first such instance of human-animal conflict. But as their routes spill over Kuno’s boundaries, there will be others—especially since cheetahs are known to feed primarily on livestock in farming regions in Kenya.

Reading list: BBC News and The Hindu have more on the video. The New Indian Express looks at the stone pelting incident on Jwala and her cubs.

Reminder: We have explained every aspect of the Cheetah Project in four previous Big Stories. The first looked at the history of cheetahs in India, the rationale for the project, and its critics. The second laid out the details of the grand plan—and examined their chances for survival, the third explained the string of deaths at Kuno—back in 2023. And the fourth looked at the cheetah's new home at the Gandhi Sagar sanctuary—which will host the new batch of 20 African cheetahs.

what caught our eye

business & tech

The S&P 500 just pulled off a historic whiplash—soaring 4% before crashing to close down over 1% for the first time since 1978, while the Nasdaq torched its biggest intraday gain since 1982.
Trump’s tariff tantrum has Indian exporters scrambling—they’re asking the government for loan relief, insurance cover, and extra funds to hold on to the US market.
Microsoft’s 50th anniversary bash ended in pink slips—two staffers protesting the company’s AI work with Israel were fired for crashing the party.
Trump’s given TikTok 75 more days to seal a sale—but a Senator says the extension might break the law.
The Verge has a good read on why internet views—the supposed currency of success—are mostly smoke and mirrors, inflated, meaningless, and still everywhere.
Shopify won’t greenlight new hires unless managers can prove AI can’t do the job—CEO says it’s time to build with bots or bust.
Waymo might turn its robo-taxis into ad machines—using in-car cameras to sell ads and train AI, all while you ride (and get watched).
Elon Musk is drifting from Trump—urging him to ditch trade war tariffs as Tesla stock and markets take a beating.
Weaponised sound waves are here—scientists can now down drones and kill their cameras with just the right frequency.

sports & entertainment

Hollywood’s China run might be ending—Beijing is mulling a ban on US film imports in retaliation to Trump’s steep new tariffs.
RIP Clem Burke—the powerhouse drummer behind Blondie’s genre-hopping sound has died of cancer at 70.
Allu Arjun turns 43 with a bang—teaming up with director Atlee and the VFX crew behind 'Avengers' and 'MI' for a mega project titled 'AA22xA6'.
A Mumbai court has re-issued a bailable warrant against Malaika Arora after she skipped testifying in Saif Ali Khan’s 2012 hotel brawl case.
Ariana Grande vaults back to #1 on the Billboard 200 with her “Eternal Sunshine” deluxe drop.
Variety has a good read on how ‘A Minecraft Movie’ built a box office juggernaut.
Werner Herzog—the legendary mind behind ‘Fitzcarraldo’ and ‘Grizzly Man’—will be honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 82nd Venice Film Festival this August.
The CSK slide continues. Punjab Kings inflicted a fourth-straight defeat on the Yellow Army in Mullanpur, thanks to Priyansh Arya’s 103 off just 42 balls—the second-fastest by an Indian in IPL history.

health & environment

Blistering heatwaves fueled a third of India’s power demand spike last summer—pushing usage up 10.8% between April and June, says a new report.
Surface ozone is choking rural India’s farms—IIT Kharagpur warns of crashing crop yields and urges urgent pollution control in agri zones.
A Chinese court is auctioning off 100 tonnes of live crocodiles—starting at $550,000, no delivery—after the so-called ‘Crocodile God’ defaulted.
Blood tests tracking Alzheimer’s risk show “amazing” results—biomarkers in a new study reveal big drops in amyloid, tau, and brain inflammation without a single spinal tap.
The Atlantic (splainer gift link) has a good read on how today’s measles outbreaks are being driven by a new threat—unvaccinated kids growing into unvaccinated adults at serious risk of complications.
A Nevada man has been arrested after authorities seized seven tigers from his property—animals he bizarrely claimed were his emotional support pets.

meanwhile, in the world

According to Amnesty International, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia carried out the most executions in 2024, with global figures up 32% from 2023.
The UN says that nearly 400,000 people have been displaced in Gaza since the end of the ceasefire last month.
Myanmar is winding down its earthquake rescue efforts—the death toll has crossed 3,600.
The US Supreme Court has allowed the Donald to use a law from 1798 to deport alleged members of a Venezuelan gang.
A hardline Iranian newspaper column has called for Trump’s assassination in retaliation for the killing of military general Qassem Solemaini, saying “a few bullets are going to be fired into that empty skull of his”.
South Sudan has backed down in its visa standoff with the US—agreeing to take back a deportee it first claimed wasn’t one of theirs.
In the latest ramp up of Trump’s alarming crackdown on college kids, the government is now abruptly revoking student visas without notifying colleges.
Vox has a must-read on how Trump is making Europe great again—thanks to the US stock market tanking due to his tariffs.
As rebel violence rocks eastern DR Congo, deadly floods have left dozens dead in the capital Kinshasa—adding crisis to chaos.
Tragedy struck a packed merengue concert in Santo Domingo as the roof of an iconic nightclub collapsed—killing at least 79 and injuring 160.
Ahead of Trump’s new tariffs taking effect, Amreeki shoppers have resorted to stockpiling goods.
Once hailed for their forest-chic eco-retreat, a Danish couple fled Sweden—leaving behind 158 barrels of human waste and a trail of abandoned animals. Authorities are calling it an environmental crime.

meanwhile, in India

The Railways ministry is yet to upload the New Delhi station stampede victims’ details on the PM’s relief fund portal—despite repeated reminders from the PMO.
Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi’s Heart Lamp becomes the first Kannada book and only the second from India to make the International Booker Prize shortlist. Winner to be announced May 20 in London.
In a bid to unify education programmes and counter China’s influence, India will roll out its first curriculum for Buddhist monasteries later this month.
BBC News has a good read on the revolution underway in India’s sneaker industry—buoyed by a massive investment from Taiwanese manufacturer Hong Fu.
In Noida, a Navratri biryani mix-up turned criminal—cops arrested a restaurant owner after a woman claimed she was knowingly served non-veg instead of veg.
India’s shipbuilding dreams are setting sail—PSUs are teaming up with Hyundai, Hanwha, and Mitsui to take on the world’s overloaded shipyards.

One Tom Cruise thing to see

After many delays, the final installment of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible franchise is coming to an end—which some will mourn, others not so much. The sequel is slated for release on May 23. Watch the trailer below. (The Verge)