The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court complaining of a “constitutional deadlock” because of alleged non-cooperation by governor R.N. Ravi in not granting assent to various bills passed by the Assembly, besides not sanctioning the prosecutions of two former ministers and others for alleged corruption.

In a writ petition, the state urged the court to direct the governor to grant assent to the requests within a timeframe since the alleged inaction of Ravi had brought the administration to a standstill.

“The present Writ Petition is being filed under Article32 of the Constitution ofIndia, to declare that the inaction, omission, delay and failure to comply with the constitutional mandate by the Governor of Tamil Nadu/ first Respondent qua the consideration and assent of the Bills passed and forwarded bythe Tamil Nadu State Legislature to him and the non-consideration of files, Government orders and policies forwarded by the State Government for his signature is unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable besides mala fide exercise of power,” the petition filed through advocate Sabarish Subramanian and drawn up by senior advocate P. Wilson stated.

“The Governor by not ‘signing remission orders, day to day files, appointment orders, approving recruitment orders, granting approval to prosecute Ministers, MLAs involved in corruption including transfer of investigation to CBI by Supreme Court,Bills passed by Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly’ is bringing the entire administration to a grinding halt and creating adversarial attitude by not cooperating with the State administration,” the petition added.

It urged the court to issue a direction to the governor to stipulate the outer time limit for consideration of bills passed by the legislature and sent for his assent.

The governor has also not acted on issues related to the premature release of prisoners, the petition said.