Supreme Court Issues Notice On Kerala's Petition Against President's Withholding Of Assent For Bills & Governor's Reference

The Supreme Court on Friday (July 26) agreed to consider the writ petition filed by the State of Kerala challenging the action of the President of India in withholding assent for four bills and the action of the Kerala Governor in referring those bills to the President.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued notice to the Union of India (through the Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs) and the Additional Chief Secretary to Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan.

Senior Advocate and former Attorney General for India KK Venugopal, appearing for the State, submitted that there was a need for the Court to lay down guidelines on when the Governors can return/refer bills.

"This a confusion in the minds of various Governors in the country as to what their powers are in regard to assenting to bills. In the present case, out of eight bills, two of them had been kept pending for 23 months. One for 15 months. Another for 13 months. And others for 10 months. Now, it is a very sad state of affairs. The Constitution itself is being rendered otiose," Venugopal submitted. He pointed out that the State was challenging the very reference of the bills to the President.

"Your lordships need to tell the Governor as to when they can refuse to assent, when they can refer to the President," Venugopal submitted.

While agreeing to issue notice on the petition, CJI asked Venugopal and Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta (who is appearing in a similar petition filed by the State of West Bengal) to formulate the points. Venugopal replied that those points have been formulated in an application filed by the State of Kerala in the pending petition against the Governor's inaction on the bills.

The state of Kerala has challenged the action of President Droupadi Murmu in withholding assent for four out of the seven bills referred by the Kerala Governor.

In its writ petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, the State also challenged the Governor's action of referring the bills to the President, arguing that none of the bills related to Centre-State relations required the Presidential assent.

The bills are related to amendments to laws concerning State Universities and Cooperative Societies. The State pointed out that the Governor had kept these bills pending for several months, ranging from 7 months to 24 months from the date when the bills were passed by the Assembly.

Previously, the State 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 last year 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. 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.

The State of Kerala argued that no reasoning has been given for such a rejection. The actions of the Union Government in advising the President of India to withhold the assent to bills which had been passed by the State Legislature as long as 11-24 months back, and which were wholly within the domain of the State Government, subverts and disrupted the federal structure, the State contended. 

The reasons given by the Governor for reserving the bills for the President have nothing to do with the Union of India or the relationship between the State Legislature or the Union. In this regard, reference is made to the proviso to Article 213 of the Constitution, which sets out the occasions when the assent of the President is necessary for promulgating an Ordinance. The State argued that only on the existence of these factors that a reference to the President was justified.

The State seeks the following reliefs :

(a) Calling for the records leading to the File Notes of the Governor for the State of Kerala with regard to reservation of 4 bills for consideration of the President and quash the same;

(b) Declare that the act of the Governor for the State of Kerala reserving 4 bills viz for consideration of the President, as unconstitutional;

(c) Calling for the records leading to the withholding of assent by the President to four bills and quash the same;

(d) Declare that withholding of assent by the President to 4 Bills without stating any reason whatsoever, as unconstitutional; and

(e) Direct the Governor of the State of Kerala to grant assent to the six bills viz. 1) University Laws (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2021 - Bill No. 50, 2) University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 – Bill No. 54, 3) the Kerala Co-operative Societies Amendment Bill, 2022 - Bill No. 110, 4) the University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022 - Bill No. 132, 5) The University Laws (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2022 - Bill No. 149, and 6) The University Laws (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill, 2022 - Bill No. 150 forthwith; and

(f) Declare that the act of the Governor of Kerala in reserving the seven bills viz. 1) University Laws (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2021 - Bill No. 50, 2) University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 – Bill No. 54, 3) the Kerala Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022 - Bill No. 110, 4) the University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022 - Bill No. 132, 5) Kerala Lok Ayukta (Amendment) Bill, 2022 – Bill No.133, 6) The University Laws (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2022 - Bill No. 149, and 7) The University Laws (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill, 2022 - Bill No. 150 for the consideration of the President was illegal and lacks in bona fides.

Case Details : STATE OF KERALA AND ANR. Versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS. W.P.(C) No. 211/2024

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