Supreme Court issues notice to Governor office in Kerala and West Bengal plea over keeping bills pending

New Delhi [India], July 26 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Kerala and West Bengal governor’s offices on two separate pleas over keeping the bills pending for assent in both states.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud issued notice to the Additional Chief Secretary to the Governor of Kerala and the Union Government on the Kerala Government petition.

The court also issued notice to the concerned respondent in the West Bengal matter as well. The court also gave liberty to implead the Union government as a party in the West Bengal matter.

The court asked the concerned respondent to file a reply in three weeks.

Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for West Bengal, submitted before the court that whenever the court hears a similar matter, some bills are cleared. He also mentioned that similar things happened in the Tamil Nadu matter as well.

Senior Advocate KK Venugopal, appearing for the Kerala Government, said that the bills have been pending for eight months and that the state is a challenging reference to the President itself.

The West Bengal Government has moved the Supreme Court against the Governor for withholding the assent of 8 bills and says that it is affecting the residents of the State of West Bengal for whose welfare the bills were passed.

The plea was filed by Advocate Astha for the West Bengal Government.

“The conduct of the Governor, not only threatens to defeat and subvert the very fundamentals and basic foundation of our Constitution, including the rule of law and democratic good governance, but further proceeds to infringe upon the rights of the people of the state to the welfare measures sought to be implemented through the bills, thereby leading to the state failing in its duties as the parens patriae,” the petitioner said.

The petition said that the 8 bills that were passed in 2022 have been kept in limbo without any action, hereby rendering the actions of the State Legislature otiose, and in turn directly affecting the residents of the State of West Bengal, for whose welfare the Bills were passed, and thereby creating an unconstitutional state of affairs by the Constitutional Post itself.

“The petitioner is constrained to move this Court invoking its extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 32, Constitution of India, aggrieved by the constitutional crises created by the acts of omissions and commissions of the Governor, State of West Bengal, concerning as many as 8 key Bills, for which assent under Article 200 of the Constitution of India has been withheld, for no reason and dishonours the Constitutional Datete,” the petition said.

The petitioner urged the top court to declare that the inaction, omission, delay and failure to comply with the constitutional mandate by the Governor of West Bengal, C.V. Ananda Bose, through its Secretary/ Respondent No. 1, qua the consideration and assent of the bills passed and forwarded by the State Legislature to him and the non-consideration of files, government orders and policies forwarded by the State Government for his signature is unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable, and besides malafide exercise of power.

The petitioner sought to issue appropriate direction to the Governor of West Bengal through its Secretary to dispose of all the bills, files, and government orders forwarded by the State Legislative Assembly and Government that are pending with his office within a specified timeframe.

The petitioner sought to issue directions to lay down guidelines stipulating the outer time limit for the Governor of West Bengal to consider Bills passed by the Legislature and sent for assent qua Article-200 of the Constitution of India in light of the recommendations of the Sarkaria Commission.

The West Bengal Government also sought to issue directions for laying down guidelines stipulating the outer time limit for the Governor of West Bengal to consider files, policies, and government orders sent for signature in the discharge of his constitutional functions.

The State Legislature deliberated upon the provisions of 8 Bills, passed them, and forwarded the same to the Office of the Governor. They continue to lie dormant with the office of the governor despite the lapse of considerable time, the petitioner informed the top court.

A governor who is a constitutional functionary but acts in gross disregard and violates the provisions of the self-same Constitution, cannot be said to be functioning in the discharge of his duties as the governor through either his actions or inactions, the state government said.

It further submitted, that no part of the powers and duties of the office of the Governor provides for him to refuse to deal with bills pending, in this case, for almost two years, while at the same time, granting assent to other bills.

The eight bills are the West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022, The West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences (Amendment) Bill, 2022, The West Bengal Private University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022, The West Bengal Krishi Viswavidyalaya

Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022, The West Bengal University of Health Sciences (Amendment) Bill, 2022, The Aliah University (Amendment) Bill, 2022, The West Bengal Town and Country (Planning and Development) (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023.

The Kerala government has moved the Supreme Court against the Governor’s decision to reserve some bills for the assent of the President and said that “the conduct of the Governor in keeping bills pending for long is manifestly arbitrary.

In the plea, the Kerala Government has sought to declare that the act of the Governor of Kerala in reserving the seven bills–University Laws (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2021; University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Kerala Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022; the University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Kerala Lok Ayukta (Amendment) Bill, 2022; The University Laws (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2022; and The University Laws (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill, 2022 for the consideration of the President, was illegal and lacked bona fides.