New Delhi, Apr 8 (PTI) The Kerala government on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court that its petition against the Governor over the delay in approving bills passed by the state assembly be transferred to a bench led by Justice J B Pardiwala.

A bench led by Justice Pardiwala granted a major relief to the DMK-led Tamil Nadu government in a similar plea and paved way for clearing 10 bills that were stalled and reserved by Governor R N Ravi for President's consideration.

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Justice Pardiwala also set a timeline, ranging from one to three months, for all governors to act on the bills passed by state assemblies.

The Kerala government, represented by senior advocate K K Venugopal, informed a bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar that its plea, being similar in nature, be sent to Justice Pardiwala's bench.

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“It has been almost two years. Bills are pending. Justice Pardiwala has dealt with similar issues and this can be transferred to that bench,” Venugopal said.

Attorney general R Venkataramani opposed the submissions and said the issues were different and moreover, Justice Pardiwala's judgment had to be read before any such decision was taken.

The CJI said any such decision would be on the next hearing and posted the plea in the week of May 13.

In 2023, the top court expressed displeasure over then Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan "sitting" for two years on bills passed by the state legislature.

Khan is currently Governor of Bihar.

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

The Kerala government alleged that 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.

Venugopal said, "This is the most unfortunate situation."

The state said its plea related to the acts of Governor in reserving seven bills, which he was required to deal with himself, to President.

Not one of the seven bills had anything to do with Centre-state relations, it argued.

The bills were pending with Governor for as long as two years and his action "subverted" the functioning of the state legislature, rendering its very existence "ineffective and otiose", the state added.

"The bills include public interest bills that are for the public good, and even these have been rendered ineffective by the Governor not dealing with each one of them 'as soon as possible', as required by the proviso to Article 200," the plea said.

The state government said on February 23 and 29, the home ministry informed it that President had withheld assent to four of the seven bills -- University Laws (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2021; Kerala Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022; University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022; and University Laws (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill, 2022.

The Constitution is silent on how much time President can take in granting assent to a bill passed by a state legislature and referred to the Rashtrapati Bhavan for presidential consideration or for denying consent.

Article 361 of the Constitution says President, or Governor of a state, shall not be answerable to any court for the exercise and performance of the powers and duties of his office or for any act done or purporting to be done by him in the exercise and performance of those powers and duties.

The article provides for the process for a bill passed by the assembly of a state to be presented to Governor for assent who may either assent or withhold assent or reserve the bill for consideration by President.

"When a bill has been passed by the legislative assembly of a state or, in the case of a state having a legislative council, has been passed by both Houses of the legislature of the state, it shall be presented to the governor and the governor shall declare either that he assents to the bill or that he withholds assent therefrom or that he reserves the bill for the consideration of the president," Article 200 says.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)