KK Venugopal Requests CJI To Send Kerala's Petition Against Governor's Delay In Clearing Bills To Justice Pardiwala's Bench

Senior Advocate KK Venugopal on Tuesday (March 25) requested the Chief Justice of India to refer the petitions filed by the State of Kerala against the Kerala Governor over the delay in approving the bills passed by the legislative assembly to a bench led by Justice JB Pardiwala, which has reserved judgment on a similar petition filed by the Staet of Tamil Nadu.  

Venugopal, appearing for the State of Kerala, flagged the urgency of the matter and submitted : 

"The Governor refers it (pending bills) to the President, the President keeps it for one year and 3 months, and yesterday we received my lords, the rejection with regards to two bills...this is a very very urgent matter."  

Considering the same, CJI Sanjiv Khanna asked Venugopal to move a mentioning slip and signalled the possibility of relisting it before another bench. He said : 

"Please move the mentioning slip ...I'll see, I will maybe mark it some other bench ...I'll mark it to some other bench given the timelines." 

Venugopal informed the Court that the bench led by Justice JB Pardiwala had reserved its decision in another matter dealing with writ petitions filed by the Tamil Nadu Government against its Governor Dr RN Ravi withholding assent for 12 bills.

He requested that the case be listed before the bench of Justice Pardiwala since there is a similarity of issues involved. 

"Judgement has been reserved by Justice Pardiwala, this may be referred to that bench."

CJI replied, "We will just see".

The bench of the CJI, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra had issued notice in the present matter in November 2023. Subsequently, the bench also criticised the conduct of the then Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan in sitting over the bills passed by the Kerala State Legislative Assembly for two years.

Later, the Governor referred some Bills to the President. 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.

Case Title: The State Of Kerala And Anr. v Honble Governor For State Of Kerala And Ors. W.P.(C) No. 1264/2023 + The State Of Tamil Nadu v The Governor Of Tamilnadu And Anr. W.P.(C) No. 1239/2023 + State of Kerala v Union of India W.P.(C) No. 211/2024