SC starts hearing on Presidential Reference on timeline for assent to bills

The Supreme Court on Tuesday commenced hearing on the Presidential Reference, which raised constitutional questions on whether the court can impose timelines for Governors and the President to deal with bills passed by state assemblies.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice BR Gavai allowed state governments of Kerala and Tamil Nadu to question the maintainability of the Presidential Reference.

"We will hear preliminary objections for half an hour. Thereafter, we will start hearing submissions from the Attorney General," CJI Gavai said at the outset.

The bench -- also comprising Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, P S Narasimha and A S Chandurkar -- said that after hearing preliminary objections, the court will hear arguments on the Presidential Reference itself, starting with the submission of Attorney General R Venkataramani.

Senior advocate KK Venugopal, appearing for Kerala government, opposed the Presidential Reference and said the issue is covered by a series of judgments.

Citing several Supreme Court verdicts, he said the Governor's powers under Article 200 has been interpreted by the apex court time and again, and it is for the first time in the Tamil Nadu (State vs Governor) case, a deadline has been fixed for assent of bills passed by the Assembly.

Meanwhile, the Centre, in its written submission, has said that imposing fixed timelines on Governors and the President to act on bills passed by a state Assembly would amount to one organ of the government assuming powers not vested in it by the Constitution, and lead to "constitutional disorder".

The apex court imposing fixed timelines would dissolve the delicate equilibrium that the Constitution has established and negate the rule of law, it stated.

On July 29, the top court had fixed a time schedule for hearing the Presidential Reference and proposed to start the hearing from August 19.

The top court had said that the Centre and the states supporting the Presidential Reference will be heard on August 19, 20, 21 and 26, while those opposing it will be heard on August 28 and September 2, 3 and 9.

The bench said rejoinder submissions, if any, will be heard on September 10.

On July 22, the top court observed that the issues raised in the Presidential Reference will affect the "entire country".

In May, President Droupadi Murmu exercised powers under Article 143(1) to know from the top court whether timelines could be imposed by judicial orders for exercise of discretion by the President while dealing with the bills passed by state assemblies.

The President's decision came in light of the April 8 verdict of the apex court, on powers of the Governor in dealing with bills passed by the Tamil Nadu government.

The verdict, for the first time, prescribed that the President should decide on the bills reserved for her consideration by the Governor within three months from the date on which such reference is received.

In a five-page reference, President Murmu posed 14 questions to the Supreme Court and sought to know its opinion on powers of Governor and President under Articles 200 and 201 in dealing with bills passed by the state legislature.

The verdict has set a timeline for all Governors to act on the bills passed by the state assemblies and ruled that the Governor does not possess any discretion in exercise of functions under Article 200 of the Constitution in respect to any bill presented to them and must mandatorily abide by the advice tendered by the council of ministers.

It had said that state governments can directly approach the Supreme Court if the President withholds assent on a bill sent by a Governor for consideration.