New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked Governor Arif Mohammed Khan to refer to the judgement passed in the case related to the Punjab Governor's inaction on bills and adjourned the hearing of the petition, filed by the Kerala Government accusing the Governor of delaying assent to eight bills cleared by the Assembly, till November 28.
CJI D Y Chandrachud told Attorney General R Venkataramani: "We uploaded the order in the Punjab matter last night. Ask the Governor's secretary to look at the order and tell us on Tuesday what your response is."
The Supreme Court, in a similar petition filed by the Punjab Government, had held that if a Governor decides to withhold assent to a Bill, then he has to return the bill to the legislature for reconsideration. The court had also orally stated that the trend of Governors acting on the bills only after the state government approached the court must stop.
The judgment stated that if such an interpretation was not adopted, then the Governor would be in a position to derail the legislative process by simply saying he was withholding assent.
In the judgement, the court also reaffirmed that the Governor was an unelected Head of the State and could not use his constitutional powers to thwart the normal course of lawmaking by the state.
In the Punjab matter, the Governor kept the bills pending by doubting the validity of the assembly session in which they were passed. Notably, the Governor did not ‘declare’ in any public notification that he was withholding his assent to the Bills. The Governor advised the chief minister to call for a fresh Monsoon/Winter Session and to forward an agenda setting out the specific business to be conducted so as to enable him to grant permission for the summoning of the House to transact the business. Aggrieved by the inaction of the Governor, the government invoked the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution.
The Kerala government has claimed that the governor is delaying the consideration of the eight bills by withholding his assent and this is "defeating the rights of the people".
It has claimed inaction on the governor's part in relation to the eight bills passed by the state legislature and said many of these proposed legislations involve immense public interest and provide for welfare measures that would stand deprived and denied to the people of the state to the extent of the delay.
The government has contended that grave injustice is being done to the people of the state as well as to its representative democratic institutions by the governor by keeping the bills pending for long periods of time, including three for more than two years.
The plea says the governor's conduct in keeping the bills pending for long and indefinite periods of time is also manifestly arbitrary and violates Article 14 of the Constitution.
The following are the bills pending consideration by the Governor and the time elapsed since its presentation:
University Laws Amendment Bill (1st Amendment) 2021: 3 months
University Laws Amendment Bill (1st Amendment) 2021: 23 months
University Laws Amendment Bill (2nd Amendment) 2021 [APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University (Mal)]: 23 months
Kerala Co-operative Societies Amendment Bill 2022 [MILMA]: 14 months
University Laws Amendment Bill 2022: 12 months
Kerala Lokayukta Amendment Bill 2022: 12 months
University Laws Amendment Bill 2022: 9 months
Public Health Bill 2021: 5 months
(With PTI and Live Law inputs)
