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Tamil Nadu Governor Fathima Beevi, swearing in the AIADMK leader Ms. Jayalalitha, as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister at the Raj Bhavan in Chennai on May 15, 2001.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
The tenure of Justice Fathima Beevi, who died in Kerala on November 23, as Governor of Tamil Nadu during 1997-2001 was mired in controversies.
Her most controversial decision as Governor was to administer the oath of office and secrecy to former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa within hours of the AIADMK securing a majority in the Assembly elections in May 2001. Jayalalithaa had suffered disqualification from contesting elections that year on account of her conviction for a three year term in two TANSI land deal cases by a Special Court in Chennai.
However, her party legislators elected her as the leader of the AIADMK legislature party following which Jayalalithaa drove straight to the Raj Bhavan and handed over a letter conveying her election to Justice Beevi.
“Within a few hours, Jayalalithaa was back at the Raj Bhavan, and took oath as Chief Minister in the name of God,” reported The Hindu on May 15, 2001.
“Everything has happened in a rush. I myself did not expect that I would be sworn in today itself. Everything has taken place very smoothly. I am very happy. This is a victory for the people of Tamil Nadu,” she had told journalists after the swearing-in ceremony.
As a debate ensued, the office of the Attorney-General, Soli Sorabjee made it clear that “he has neither been consulted nor has he given any opinion on the question of inviting Jayalalithaa to form the government.
Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan had strongly condemned the Governor’s decision and in his article in The Hindu, he said an entire tradition of democracy had been thrown out of a Raj Bhavan’s window.
“In the past, Ministers convicted of a crime were made to resign. After Ms. Fathima Beevi’s decision, they will march into office, unabashed and unashamed,” he wrote.
Eventually in September that year, the Supreme Court on a public interest litigation petition, unseated Jayalalithaa holding she stood disqualified from holding Constitutional office on account of her conviction.
Ms Beevi’s tenure too ended abruptly with a couple of months after the swearing of Jayalalithaa. Following the midnight arrest of then DMK president M Karunanidhi from his house in Chennai by the CB-CID in an alleged flyover scam, the Centre was displeased with her report. In an unprecedented action, Murasoli Maran and T.R. Baalu, both serving Union Ministers in the Vajpayee Government, were also remanded in custody when they protested Karunanidhi’s arrest.
“Governor’s report is totally unacceptable,” said the then Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley. “The Cabinet found that the Governor had failed to make an independent assessment of the situation and was merely content to forward the State Government’s views,” he added. The Centre had decided to recall her prompting Ms Beevi to resign.
The Hindu quoting a Cabinet Minister reported that the Governor’s two-and-a-half page report was, more or less, “comma for comma, full stop for full stop” reproduction of the report sent by the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary. This, according to Jaitley, constituted a default on the part of the Governor.
C. Rangarajan, Governor of Andhra Pradesh was asked to hold additional charge of Tamil Nadu.
Ms Beevi had also rejected the mercy petitions of the four condemned prisoners in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The Madras High Court, however, set aside her order on the ground that the procedure of the Governor getting advice from the Council of Ministers before passing the impugned order under Article 161 of the Constitution was not followed.
Subsequently, she commuted the death sentence of Nalini, the prime accused in the case, on the advice of the Tamil Nadu cabinet.
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