NEW DELHI, Aug 19:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned the Centre and the Attorney General over the long pendency of bills passed by Assemblies with Governors, underscoring the limitations of Constitutional courts in situations where legislation has been pending since 2020.
Follow the Daily Excelsior channel on WhatsApp
The query from a five-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice B R Gavai came while hearing a Presidential reference seeking clarity on whether fixed timelines could be imposed on Governors and President while dealing with bills passed by the state legislatures.
The bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, P S Narasimha and A S Chandurkar, said it would be expressing its views only on the law and not on the April 8 decision in the Tamil Nadu case, fixing a timeline for governors and President for acting on bills passed by State Legislatures.
The bench, while responding to the preliminary objections raised by Tamil Nadu and Kerala Governments on maintainability of the Presidential reference, said it would exercise its advisory jurisdiction as it was not sitting in the appellate jurisdiction.
Attorney General R Venkataramani, whose assistance was sought by the top court, said courts cannot exercise its plenary power under Article 142 of the Constitution to rule the bills pending with Governor, are deemed to have been passed.
Justice Kant asked Venkataramani whether bills were pending before Tamil Nadu Governor since 2020.
The AG said those facts were not before the court and the court had to examine the “lis” before it.
“The court has to look at the law, whether such an order can be passed. Even if it is factually correct…there were explanations given for that. There was an explanation why the governor kept the bills pending. We are talking about state of powers on whether Article 142 can be invoked to declare the bills deemed to have been passed,” he said. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
