The Attorney General and the Solicitor General of India on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that its recent decision on the State of Tamil Nadu, including the laying down of timelines for the grant of assent to Bills, would not cover the State of Kerala.
The law officers made these submissions before the Bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, during the hearing of a writ petition filed by the State of Kerala in 2023 against the Governor’s delay in deciding on the Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly.
Representing the State of Kerala, Senior Advocate KK Venugopal apprised the Apex Court that the verdict delivered in the Tamil Nadu Governor’s case would also cover the pending Bills matter of Kerala.
When SG Mehta said that he needed time to examine the impact of the judgment, Venugopal asked him whether the SC verdict on Tamil Nadu covered the Kerala case directly or not. The SG replied in negative.
Siding with the SG, Attorney General R Venkataramani submitted that the judgment on Tamil Nadu pending Bills matter did not cover certain issues related to the present case. Besides, there were factual differences, he added.
The Apex Court observed that it would examine whether the judgment was applicable to Kerala’s case as well or if there were any differences, and listed the matter for further hearing on May 6.
Senior Advocate Venugopal apprised the Court that there was a subsequent writ petition filed by Kerala challenging the President’s withholding of the Bills (which were referred by the Governor after the 2023 petition was filed).
The Chief Justice of India directed the listing of the petition on May 13. A Bench led by Justice Narasimha said a mention has to be made before the CJI for tagging the other petition with the present one, added the former AG.
In November 2023, after notice was issued on the present writ petition, the Governor referred certain Bills to the President. In a subsequent hearing, the bench led by former CJI DY Chandrachud had criticised the then Kerala Governor Arif Muhammed Khan for sitting over the Bills for nearly two years.
On February 29, 2024, the President withheld assent from four bills and approved three other bills. Presidential assent was withheld for the following bills. 1) University Laws (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2021, 2) the Kerala Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022, 3) the University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022 , and 4) the University Laws (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill, 2022.
Challenging the reference to the President and the President’s refusal to grant assent to the bills, the State filed another writ petition in 2024, on which notice was issued by the Supreme Court to the Union in July 2024.
In March 2024, the Kerala government moved the Supreme Court against the President’s refusal to give assent to four out of the seven bills referred to it by Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan.
The writ petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution by the State of Kerala also challenged the Governor’s action of referring the bills to the President, arguing that none of the bills were related to Centre-State relations, so as to require the Presidential assent.
Out of the seven Bills, which were related to amendments to laws concerning State Universities and Cooperative Societies, the Governor kept them pending for several months, ranging from seven to 24 months from the date when the bills were passed by the Assembly, noted the plea.
The Kerala government had earlier filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court challenging the Governor’s inaction. After the Supreme Court issued notice on the petition on November 20, the Governor referred the seven bills to the President.
On November 29, 2023, while hearing the petition, the Supreme Court criticised the Governor for sitting over the bills.
On February 29, the President withheld assent from four bills and approved three other bills.
The Bills on which the President withheld assent are: 1) University Laws (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2021, 2) the Kerala Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022, 3) the University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022 , and 4) the University Laws (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill, 2022.
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