President should decide on bills reserved for her consideration by Guv within 3 months: SC
President should convey to states reasons for delay, states should cooperate by answering any queries; court will intervene if bills held beyond reasonable time
Supreme Court
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court, for the first time, has 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.
Four days after the top court cleared 10 bills of the Tamil Nadu government, which were stalled and reserved by the state Governor RN Ravi for the President's consideration, and set a timeline for all governors to act on the bills passed by the state assemblies, the ruling, running into 415 pages, was uploaded on the apex court's website at 10.54 pm on Friday.
"We deem it appropriate to adopt the timeline prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs... and prescribe that the President is required to make a decision on the bills reserved for his consideration by the Governor within a period of three months from the date on which such reference is received.
"In case of any delay beyond this period, appropriate reasons would have to be recorded and conveyed to the concerned State. The States are also required to be collaborative and extend cooperation by furnishing answers to the queries which may be raised and consider the suggestions made by the Central government expeditiously," the top court said.
A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan on April 8 set aside the reservation of the 10 bills for the President's consideration in the second round, holding it as illegal and erroneous in law.
Without mincing words, the court said "where the Governor reserves a Bill for the consideration of the President and the President in turn withholds assent thereto then, it shall be open to the State Government to assail such an action before this Court".
Article 200 of the Constitution empowers the governor to give assent to the bills presented to him, withhold the assent or to reserve it for the consideration of the President.
The top court exercised its plenary power under Article 142 of the Constitution to make the bill re-presented to the Tamil Nadu governor, as deemed to have been passed.
The apex court had previously framed questions to answer in a dispute between Tamil Nadu government and the governor over the delay in assent to bills passed by the legislative assembly.
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.
