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The Union government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that its recent judgement laying down a timeline for the Tamil Nadu governor to act on bills passed by the Assembly will not apply to the case filed by Kerala, Live Law reported.
A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Joymala Bagchi was hearing a petition filed by Kerala in 2023 against the governor’s delay in acting on bills.
Advocate KK Venugopal, representing the Kerala government, argued that the Supreme Court’s April 8 verdict in the matter pertaining to the Tamil Nadu governor covers Kerala’s case too.
The Supreme Court’s ruling came on a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu government after Governor RN Ravi did not act on several bills for over three years before rejecting them and sending some to the president.
Most of the bills related to higher education, including measures to remove the governor as chancellor of state universities. Of the 10 re-enacted bills sent to the president in November 2023, one was approved, seven were rejected and two were pending.
The court held that Ravi’s decision to withhold assent to 10 bills, some of which were pending since January 2020, and refer them to the president after they were re-enacted by the Assembly was “illegal and erroneous”.
The court declared that the 10 bills would be deemed to have received the governor’s assent from the date they were passed a second time by the legislature. It also set aside any action taken by the president based on the governor’s reference.
In its 414-page judgement, the court also imposed a three-month deadline on the president to approve or reject such bills.
In November 2023, the Kerala government had also moved the Supreme Court against the delay by Arif Mohammed Khan, the state’s governor at the time, in clearing bills.
During the hearing on Tuesday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought time to examine the scope of the judgement. However, when Venugopal urged him to say whether the Kerala case was covered by the judgement “directly or not”, Mehta said, “it is not covered”.
Attorney General R Venkataramani also said that the judgement did not cover the case pertaining to Kerala, arguing that there were “factual differences”.
The bench said it will examine whether the judgement applied to Kerala’s case. It will hear the matter next on May 6.
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar said on April 17 that there cannot be a situation where the judiciary issues directives to the president.
On Saturday, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey also questioned how the Supreme Court could issue directives to its appointing authority, the president. The BJP has distanced itself from Dubey’s remarks.
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