New Delhi: For the first time, the Supreme Court said the President must decide on bills referred by governors within three months. This comes as the top court set aside the Tamil Nadu Governor’s decision to withhold assent to pending bills on Tuesday. On Friday, the order was made public.
A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said functions by the President under Article 201 was amenable to judicial review.
According to Article 201, when a bill is reserved by a governor, the President shall declare that either he/she assents to the bill or he/she withholds assent therefrom. But the Constitution has no specified timeframe for the same.
The SC emphasized that the President does not have a “pocket veto.” The President has to either grant assent or withhold it.
“The position of law is settled that even where no time-limit is prescribed for the exercise of any power under a statute, it should be exercised within a reasonable time. The exercise of powers by the President under Article 201 cannot be said to be immune to this general principle of law,” the Supreme Court said.
In case of a delay beyond the three-month period, the appropriate reasons would have to be recorded and conveyed to the concerned state, the court observed.
“We prescribe that the President is required to take 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,” SC observed
President’s withholding of assent can be challenged
Aggrieved states can move the courts in case of no action within the timeframe, the SC further observed.
If a bill is reserved due to questions of constitutional validity, the top court underlined that the executive should not assume the role of the courts. It said such questions should be referred to the Supreme Court under Article 143.
“We have no qualms in stating that the hands of the executive are tied when engaging with purely legal issues in a bill and only the constitutional courts have the prerogative to study and provide recommendations as regards the constitutionality of a bill,” the SC stated, as quoted by India Today.
Earlier, Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi had withheld assent to 10 bills cleared by the DMK government.
