SC to hear Kerala's pleas against Governor over delay in approving bills

A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi noted senior advocate K K Venugopal's submission that another bench's verdict on Tamil Nadu's plea addressed the issues in the current petition

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear on May 6 the pleas of the Kerala government against the governor over the delay in approving bills passed by the state assembly.

A bench comprising Justices P S Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi took note of the submissions of senior advocate K K Venugopal, appearing for the state government, that the verdict of another bench on the plea of Tamil Nadu covered the issues raised in the present petition.

Venugopal said the judgement delivered by a bench headed by Justice J B Pardiwala framed guidelines and set timelines for governors and the President on granting assent to bills.

What is the timeline for making a reference to the President by the governor and this issue is dealt with by that judgement, the senior lawyer said.

We will look into that judgement and see whether issues raised here are covered, the bench said and fixed the pleas for further hearing on May 6.

Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the office of the Kerala governor, differed with Venugopal and said that certain issues were different.

A bench comprising Justices Pardiwala and R Mahadevan on April 8 delivered a significant verdict on the plea of Tamil Nadu and set aside the reservation of the 10 bills for the president's consideration in the second round holding it as illegal, erroneous in law.

The bench, for the first time, prescribed that the president should decide on the bills reserved for her consideration by the governor within a period of three months from the date on which such reference is received.

Kerala seeks similar directions in its case.

The top court on July 26 last year agreed to consider the plea of Kerala alleging the denial of assent to bills passed by the legislative assembly.

The Kerala government alleged that the then Governor Arif Mohammed Khan referred certain bills to President Droupadi Murmu and those were yet to be cleared.

Taking note of the pleas, the top court issued notices to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the secretaries of Kerala Governor.