Governors ‘sitting’ over bills: Supreme Court to consider laying down guidelines

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, November 29

Faced with recurring instances of governors “sitting” over bills passed by state assemblies for years, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will consider laying down guidelines as to when the governors can refer bills to the President of India 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 state legislative 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 the Kerala Government 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 Chief Minister 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 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.

While hearing the Kerala government’s petition against the governor sitting over bills passed by the state assembly, the Bench said, “We have to keep the matter pending. This is a live issue.”

Venugopal alleged that the governor was acting as an adversary and delaying assent to bills passed by the assembly.

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.

“The Governor, as an unelected Head of the State, is entrusted with certain constitutional powers. However, this power cannot be used to thwart the normal course of lawmaking by the State Legislatures,” a Bench led by CJI Chandrachud had said in its verdict on Punjab Government’s petition against Governor Banwarilal Purohit sitting over Bills passed by the state assembly.

Earlier, the top court had questioned the alleged delay on the part of Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi in granting assent to several Bills passed by the state legislative assembly and wondered why governors should wait for state governments to file petitions.

It’s likely to take up December 1 the Tamil Nadu Government’s petition alleging delay by Governor Ravi in granting assent to Bills passed by the state Assembly.