‘Unfortunate State Of Affairs’, Terms Kerala, WB On Denial Of Assent To Bills, SC Issues Notice

Senior advocate KK Venugopal, representing Kerala, said that they were contesting the governor's decision to refer bills for the president's consideration as they were pending for eight months.

New Delhi:The Supreme Court on Friday sought response from the Centre and the secretaries to the governors of West Bengal and Kerala, on separate petitions filed by two state governments challenging the denial of assent to bills and referring those for the consideration of the President.

A bench of Chief Justice (CJI) DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Paridwala and Justice Manoj Misra issued notices to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the secretaries to both the governors.

Senior advocate KK Venugopal, representing the Kerala government, submitted before a bench led by CJI that the bills were pending for as many as eight months and added that they were challenging the governor’s decision to refer bills for consideration by the president.

Similarly, senior advocates Abhishek Singhvi and Jaideep Gupta, representing West Bengal, said every time the matter was listed in the Supreme Court, the office of the governor referred bills to the president. The CJI told the senior counsel that if there is a possibility to formulate a few questions which arise on the power to reserve bills, “formulate that for us and we of course issue notice in both matters”.

The bench said it will issue notice in the Kerala and the West Bengal case and gave liberty to implead Union government. Gupta said after they gave notice of mentioning, the governor’s office had sent a letter saying that “we have reserved some of those bills for consideration of the President but there is no official correspondence…”.

Singhvi said that it was now becoming a practice. "In the Tamil Nadu matter, I filed the petition. The moment the matter is listed, two bills are cleared. Next date comes and again something is sent to the President…..”.

Venugopal said that the reference to the President seems to be the easy way out, they do not want to cooperate with the state legislature of which they are part. This is an unfortunate state of affairs.”

In March this year, Kerala moved the apex court against President Droupadi Murmu for withholding assent for the four Bills passed by the Kerala Legislature.

In July, the West Bengal government also moved the Supreme Court against the state’s governor for not acting on eight bills, since 2022, claiming it is against the constitutional mandate and rendered the actions of the state legislature otiose.

The West Bengal government stressed that the conduct of the governor, not only threatens to defeat and subvert the very fundamentals and basic foundation of the Constitution, but further proceeds to infringe upon the rights of the people of the state.