Supreme Court may frame guidelines for governors on bills
Supreme Court would consider framing guidelines for governors on deadline for granting assent to a bill or rejecting it and when a bill can be sent for presidential reference, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud has said.
The CJI's remark came after former attorney general KK Venugopal, who appeared for the Kerala government, argued for such guidelines. Venugopal's demand was opposed by attorney general R Venkataramani.
SC, however, said it «will get into it». The bench took strong exception to Kerala governor Arif Mohammed Khan delaying in deciding on bills passed by the state assembly.
«What was the governor doing for two years,» the CJI asked, pointing to bills passed in 2021 by the assembly but not decided by the governor for two years.
The CJI said that governors were accountable, and the court owes a «duty to the Constitution...people ask us about it».
The development came on Wednesday during resumed hearing of a plea filed by the Kerala government against the governor for delay in grant of assent to over 15 bills passed by the state legislative assembly.
Venugopal argued that the Khan had sent seven of the eight bills before him to the President though the said bills were not in conflict with any central law. The court allowed the Kerala government to amend its plea to seek guidelines to be laid down by SC for the governor to send bills passed by a state to the President.
The bench, however, refused to interfere with Khan's action of sending seven bills passed earlier by the legislature to the President.
Passing the order, the bench said that it will keep the matter pending. The bench said that initially it thought of disposing of the plea «But it will not be proper.
Read more on economictimes.indiatimes.com
