 "Supreme Court pulls up Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi for stalling Bills")
The judgment, by a Bench of judges J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, will be a shot in the arm for states, especially Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Punjab, which had flagged the issue of their governors holding on — for presidential assent — to several Bills passed by the legislatures.
In the case of Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court deemed the 10 Bills, one of which was pending since 2020, passed.
“The action of the governor to reserve the 10 Bills is illegal and arbitrary and thus the action is set aside,” the court said.
The court added: “The 10 Bills shall be deemed to be clear from the date it was re-presented to the governor.”
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin hailed the Supreme Court’s judgment as historic.
“This order is not only for Tamil Nadu but a huge victory for all states in India,” he said in the Assembly, calling it a vindication of federalism, state autonomy, and Dravidian politics.
The Tamil Nadu government had moved the Supreme Court against Governor R N Ravi’s repeated delays and refusals to assent to state legislation.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan termed the Supreme Court verdict a victory for democracy and a warning against the tendency of governors to usurp the powers of the Assembly.
In Kerala’s case, former governor Arif Mohammed Khan had withheld assent to several Bills passed by the Assembly.
Senior advocate P Wilson, who represented Tamil Nadu, said the ruling was a big win for the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government.
“Article 200 requires the governor to act within a timeline. There is no pocket veto or absolute veto. When a Bill is presented to the governor, he is under obligation to pick one of three options.”
In the judgment, the Supreme Court said: “Despite there being no prescribed time limits, Article 200 cannot be read in a manner which allows the governor to not take action on the Bills, which are presented to him for assent and thereby delay, and essentially roadblock law-making machinery in the state.”
Fixing the timeline, the Bench said in the case of withholding assent on a Bill and reserving it for the President with the aid and advice of the council of ministers, the maximum period would be one month.
In case the governor decides to withhold assent without the aid and advice of the council of ministers, the Bills must be returned to the Assembly within three months, it added. The top court said in the case of presentation of a Bill after reconsideration by the Assembly, the governor would have to give assent to the Bills in a month. The Bench cautioned any failure to comply with the timeline would make the inaction of the governor subject to judicial review by courts.
It said the governor must be conscious about not creating “roadblocks or chokeholds” in the state legislature in order “to thwart and break the will of the people”.
The Bench said the governor couldn’t sit on Bills and adopt the concept of “absolute veto” or “pocket veto”.
“Pocket veto” is a concept where the governor sits on Bills without signing them and virtually making them ineffective.
The delay in giving assent by the governor prompted the state government to move the top court in 2023, claiming 12 Bills, including one from 2020, were pending with him.
On November 13, 2023, the governor declared he was withholding assent to 10 Bills, following which the Legislative Assembly convened a special session and re-enacted the same Bills on November 18, 2023.
The governor on November 28, 2023, reserved some of the Bills for the President’s consideration.
WHAT DATA SAYS
247 Bills: Presidential approval granted to state/UT Bills between 2014 and 2022
Gujarat, UP: Accounted for roughly one-fifth of the 247 approved Bills since 2014, with 24 and 23 respectively
10 Tamil Nadu Bills: Supreme Court ruling effectively deemed passed these Bills, some of which dated back to 2020 when the AIADMK ruled Tamil Nadu, to which Governor RN Ravi had withheld assent
28%: Bills from Gujarat, UP, and Maharashtra that got prez assent of the total
95 Bills: Pending bills have been processed in consultation with the nodal central ministries and departments