ABOUT THE DISCUSSION

Join us for the next episode of The Great Cases, hosted by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy in collaboration with the India International Centre, as we unpack State of Tamil Nadu v. Governor of Tamil Nadu, a case at the heart of federalism, constitutional duties, and democratic accountability in India. This matter raises pressing questions around the limits of executive power and the functioning of constitutional offices in India’s federal framework.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

• Tathagata Roy– Tathagata Roy is an Indian politician who served as the Governor of Tripura from 2015 to 2018 and the Governor of Meghalaya from 2018 to 2020. Roy briefly had additional charge of the office of the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh from July 2016 till August 2016. An engineer by training, Roy is a former professor of construction engineering and the founder-head of the department at Jadavpur University. He is also an author on socio-political subjects, especially the partition of Bengal, and has three titles on the subject in English and three in his native Bengali.
  
• Dr Ashok Pankaj– Dr Ashok Pankaj is a Professor at the Council for Social Development, New Delhi. His areas of interest are: law and political economy of development in India, with a focus on public policy, institutions of governance and development, and interface between democracy and development. A keen observer of society, he has conducted about two dozen field based studies on socio-economic developments in India. Apart from numerous articles and reviews in professional journals, he has published seven books; five in English and two in Hindi.
  
• Lalit Panda– Lalit Panda is a Specialist (Rights and Regulation) at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi, with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in law from Gujarat National Law University and Harvard Law School respectively. He has worked and advised on a wide range of subjects in public law, technology law, and regulation, and is a co-author of the book Heads Held High: Salvaging State Governors for 21st Century India. 

• Prof. Nidhi Sharma- Prof. Nidhi Sharma is an Associate Professor of Law at Jindal Global Law School and Assistant Director, Centre for Constitutional Law Studies under the aegis of Jindal Global Law School. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in law (B.A.LL.B.) from Indraprastha University, Delhi, she obtained her LL.M., specialising in Constitutional and Administrative Law, from National Law Institute University, Bhopal. Her research primarily focuses on the contemporary issues emerging from the interpretation of the Constitutional Law, particularly on asymmetries in the federal structure of the Indian Constitution.  She has researched and written on the development of Digital Data Protection Laws in India, the Abrogation of Article 370 and subsequent reorganisation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the federal asymmetries.

This discussion will be moderated by Anshul Dalmia, Research Fellow, Charkha

EVENT DETAILS

Date:  26 November 2025 

Time: 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM

Venue: Seminar Rooms 1, 2 & 3, Kamaladevi Complex, India International Centre, New Delhi