New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday two separate pleas of the Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments, alleging a delay by the respective state governors in giving assent to bills passed by the Assemblies. A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is scheduled to hear the pleas.
The Tamil Nadu Assembly re-adopted 10 bills in a special sitting on Saturday, days after those were returned by Governor R N Ravi. The bills, covering different departments, including law, agriculture and higher education, were passed in the wake of Ravi returning those on November 13. The re-adopted bills were later sent to the governor for his assent.
On November 10, describing the alleged delay by the Tamil Nadu governor in giving assent to the bills as a "matter of serious concern", the top court sought the Center's response on the state government's petition accusing the Raj Bhawan of "sitting over" 12 legislation. Issuing notice to the Center, the top court had sought the assistance of the attorney general or solicitor general in resolving the issue.
"The issues which have been raised in the writ petition raise a matter of serious concern. From the tabulated statements which have been submitted before this court, it appears that as many as 12 bills which have been submitted to the governor under Article 200 have not elicited any further action.
"Other matters, such as proposals for the grant of sanction for prosecution, proposals for the premature release of prisoners and for the appointment of the members of the Public Service Commission, are pending," it had said. The bench headed by CJI Chandrachud had said, "Bearing in mind the situation, we issue notice to the second respondent, namely, the Union of India represented by the secretary to the government in the Ministry of Home Affairs. We request the attorney general of India or, in his absence, the solicitor general of India to assist the court."
It had noted that Article 200 of the Constitution mandates that when a bill is passed by the legislative Assembly of a state or where a state has a bicameral legislature, by both the Houses, it shall be presented to the governor, who shall (1) declare assents to the bill or (2) withhold assent therefrom or (3) reserve the bill for the consideration of the president.
The Tamil Nadu government has urged the top court to intervene in the matter, alleging that "a constitutional authority" is consistently acting in an "unconstitutional manner, impeding and obstructing" the functioning of the state government for "extraneous reasons". "Declare that the inaction, omission, delay and failure to comply with the constitutional mandate by the governor of Tamil Nadu/first respondent qua the consideration and assent of the bills passed and forwarded by the Tamil Nadu state legislature to him and the non-consideration of files, government orders and policies forwarded by the state government for his signature is unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable, besides mala-fide exercise of power," the petition says.