In a recent hearing, the Supreme Court was informed that the judgment in the Tamil Nadu Governor's case — which set a time limit for granting assent to Bills — does not apply to the case of Kerala.
A bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a writ petition filed by the State of Kerala in 2023. The petition challenged the prolonged delay by the Kerala Governor in taking action on Bills passed by the state legislature.
Senior Advocate KK Venugopal, representing the Kerala Government, argued that the judgment in the Tamil Nadu case also applied to Kerala.
“Matter covered by the recent judgment. The issue is what is the time limit for reference to the President. That is held to be three months,” he said, citing a circular issued by the Central Government.
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However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta expressed the need for more time to assess the relevance of the judgment in this case.
"Solicitor General has to say if it is covered directly or not,” Venugopal said.
In response, SG Mehta clarified, “It is not covered.”
Attorney General R Venkataramani also disagreed with the applicability of the Tamil Nadu ruling to Kerala’s case.
“Judgment does not cover certain issues of this case on facts. We would like to show those differences,” he told the bench.
The court stated it would examine whether the judgment could be extended to Kerala or if factual differences made it inapplicable.
Venugopal further informed the bench about a second writ petition filed by Kerala, challenging the President’s decision to withhold assent to several Bills that had been referred after the original 2023 petition.
“Chief Justice has directed listing of the petition on May 13,” said Justice Narasimha, noting that a formal mention must be made to tag both petitions together.
The court scheduled the present matter for further hearing on May 6.
In November 2023, after the first petition was filed, the Governor referred certain Bills to the President. During a hearing led by former CJI DY Chandrachud, the court had criticised then-Governor Arif Muhammed Khan for holding onto Bills for nearly two years.
On February 29, 2024, the President gave assent to three Bills and withheld assent for four key Bills:
- University Laws (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2021
- Kerala Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022
- University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022
- University Laws (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill, 2022
Following this, Kerala filed another writ petition in 2024, challenging the reference and the President’s refusal. Notice was issued by the Supreme Court to the Union in July 2024.
Case Title: The State of Kerala and Anr. v. Hon’ble Governor for State of Kerala and Ors. | W.P.(C) No. 1264/2023
