New Delhi, April 9 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up Tamil Nadu governor RN Ravi for attempting to thwart the will of an elected legislature, declared his decision to reserve 10 re-passed bills for presidential assent as "illegal", and laid down timelines to curb inaction by governors across the country, in a landmark judgment that seeks to reassert constitutional discipline, curtail gubernatorial overreach, and reiterate India's federalism.

Calling out what it described as a "growing and dangerous" trend of governors creating political roadblocks to frustrate state governments, a bench of justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan underlined that governors must function within the four corners of the Constitution and not derail the...