In what appears to be drumming up support for him, Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi, indicted by the Supreme Court, called on Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar in the national capital on Friday.

For his part, Dhankhar had criticised the recent apex court judgement, which has made 10 Bills of the Tamil Nadu Assembly inordinately delayed by the Governor and the President as deemed to have been assented, and the meeting takes place amidst reports of the Union Home Ministry planning to file a review plea.

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It also comes in the backdrop of the DMK hitting out at Dhankhar with Chief Minister MK Stalin who has hailed the verdict as ‘historic. “No one, however high, can be above the law. The same has been pointed out by our Hon’ble Supreme Court, and its historic judgement is a step towards resetting the process. Hence, it is understandable that this welcome course correction has rattled many anti-democratic forces,” was his rejoinder to Dhankhar, without naming him in a social media post.

Despite his continuing turf war with the elected DMK government of MK Stalin, besides debunking the Dravidian ideology and its icons, Ravi is continuing in office even as his tenure ended months back. He has not been disturbed even in the recent reshuffle of gubernatorial occupants. Following the Supreme Court’s strictures against him, he has found support not only from Dhankhar, who had described the verdict as judicial overreach, but from Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arkekar and the enfant terrible of the BJP, Nishikant Dubey, MP.

Losing no time, the Tamil Nadu government published in the gazette the 10 Acts, mostly pertaining to stripping the governor of the post of Chancellor of Universities and replacing him with the Chief Minister. This is the first time that Bills have become statutes without the signature of either the Governor or the President. Chief Minister Stalin had also convened a meeting of vice-chancellors of all universities to assert his authority.