1 week Ago
New Delhi, April 08: In an important judgment on Wednesday, the Supreme Court said that a state Governor does not have the power to delay or block bills passed by the State Legislature. The Court said that Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi acted wrongly when he kept ten bills pending without giving his decision and later sent them to the President, a report from bar and Bench said.A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan declared that all ten bills will be considered as approved from the day they were sent to the Governor again by the Tamil Nadu Assembly after reconsideration, reported Bar and Bench.
The judges made it clear that once a State Assembly passes a bill for the second time, the Governor must give assent within a specific time. The Governor cannot reject or forward the bill to the President unless the bill is different from the earlier version.“The action of the Governor to reserve the ten bills for the President is illegal and arbitrary,” the Court said.
“All such actions are set aside. The ten bills shall be deemed to be cleared from the date they were re-presented to the Governor.”The case was filed by the Tamil Nadu government, which said the Governor was not giving assent to several bills passed by the Assembly, causing delays in important laws.
The state said this delay was affecting governance and requested the Court to ensure that bills are decided in a time-bound manner.The Court said that while the Constitution does not mention a specific time limit under Article 200 for the Governor to act on a bill, it also does not allow indefinite delays. The judges said the Governor must choose one of the three options—give assent, return the bill for reconsideration, or reserve it for the President—within a reasonable period.
To ensure timely action, the Court also set clear timelines:1. If the Governor decides to reserve the bill for the President with advice from the state Cabinet: within 1 month.2.
If the Governor wants to return the bill without the Cabinet’s advice: within 3 months.3. If the Assembly passes the bill again after reconsideration: the Governor must approve it within 1 month.
The Court also said that if a Governor fails to follow these timelines, the delay can be reviewed by the courts.Senior lawyers Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Mukul Rohatgi, Rakesh Dwivedi, and P Wilson appeared for the Tamil Nadu government. Attorney General R Venkataramani represented the Governor.
Earlier, the Court had also questioned how the Governor could send a bill to the President after it had already been passed again by the Assembly. The judges had observed that the Governor seemed to be following his own process, which was not allowed by the Constitution.This decision is expected to affect how Governors across the country handle state bills in the future and is seen as a step towards protecting the law-making powers of elected state governments.
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