India News | Row over Bills: SC to Consider Kerala's Plea to Transfer Case to Another Bench
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will consider the request to transfer to another bench the Kerala government's petitions against the governor over the delay in approving bills passed by the state assembly.
New Delhi, Mar 25 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will consider the request to transfer to another bench the Kerala government's petitions against the governor over the delay in approving bills passed by the state assembly.
Senior advocate K K Venugopal, appearing for the state government, told a bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna the pleas were urgent and can be transferred to a bench headed by Justice J B Pardiwala which recently reserved its judgment on a similar petition of the Tamil Nadu government.
"Please move the mentioning slip. I will see," the CJI said.
"The governor refers pending bills to the President, the President keeps it for one year and 3 months, and yesterday we received my lords, the rejection with regards to two bills. This is a very very urgent matter," Venugopal said.
Earlier in 2023, the top court had voiced displeasure over then Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan "sitting" for two years on bills passed by the state legislature.
Khan is now on gubernatorial assignment in Bihar.
The top court had said it will consider laying down guidelines as to when governors can refer bills to the President of India for assent.
The bench had noted that the Kerala governor took decisions with regard to eight bills then and asked him to meet Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the minister concerned to discuss the legislations, observing "let's hope some political sagacity" takes over.
The bench was hearing a plea filed by the Kerala government over the governor not granting assent to several bills cleared by the state assembly.
Venugopal had said time has come for the apex court to lay down some guidelines as to when the bills can be reserved for presidential assent.
The governor cannot be allowed to sit over bills as it halts governance, he added.
Venugopal said instead of working with the assembly, the governor was acting as an adversary.
(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)