The Supreme Court’s advisory opinion in Special Reference No. 1 of 2025, concerning the powers of the Governor and the President under Articles 200 and 201, has been widely received as a quiet constitutional correction of the Court’s earlier ruling in State of Tamil Nadu v. Governor of Tamil Nadu. That perception stems largely from paragraph 114 of the opinion, where the Court characterises parts of the Tamil Nadu judgment as “erroneous” and recasts some of its key conclusions, particularly those concerning timelines under Article 201, as mere obiter. In effect, the Court has signalled that the State of Tamil Nadu decision rested, at least partly, on a shaky doctrinal footing. For many observers, this looks like a discreet judicial overruling. They are not wrong to detect that impulse.