Supreme Court mulls guidelines for Governors 'sitting' over Bills

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, November 29

Faced with recurring instances of Governors “sitting” over Bills passed by Assemblies, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would consider framing guidelines as to when the Governors can refer Bills to the President for assent.

A Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud — which disapproved of Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan “sitting” for two years on Bills passed by the Assembly — agreed to the Kerala Government’s request to clarify the legal position as to when Governors can refer Bills to the President.

The Bench asked Kerala to amend its petition to include a prayer seeking guidelines for governors to deal with Bills passed by state legislatures in a time-bound manner. Attorney General R Venkataramani informed the Bench that the Governor Khan has taken decisions with regard to eight Bills — seven have been “reserved” for consideration by the President, while one has been assented to.

Calling for display of “political sagacity”, the top court asked the Governor to invite CM Pinarayi Vijayan and along with the minister concerned to discuss the Bills.

As Venkataramani opposed demands made by senior counsel KK Venugopal on behalf of the Kerala Government for guidelines for the Governors and said the court should not get into it as it will open several questions, the Bench was not convinced.

“What was the Governor doing for two years by sitting on the Bills? … we will get into it very much… There is accountability by the Governor and it is about our accountability to the Constitution and the people ask us about it,” the CJI told the Attorney General.

Maintaining that the Governor is intended to be a constitutional statesman guiding the state government on matters of constitutional concern, the Supreme Court had on November 10 ruled that he can’t veto a Bill enacted by the legislative Assembly.

Guv accountable

There is accountability by the Governor, and it is about our accountability to the Constitution. The people ask us about it. — Supreme Court

Sisodia seeks review of order denying bail

Former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has moved the SC seeking a review of its order rejecting his bail plea in corruption and money laundering cases related to the Delhi excise policy scam. The top court on October 30 turned down his bail plea.