The Supreme Court, today, issued notice in a writ petition filed by the State of Kerala challenging the alleged withholding of assent to bills by the President of India and the Governor of the State and in a similar Writ Petition filed by West Bengal against its Governor.

The State of Kerala filed the writ petition challenging the act of the President of India in withholding assent for bills. Similarly. the State of West Bengal also filed a writ petition challenging the withholding assent on eight key bills relating to the University Laws in the State.

The Bench of Chief Justice Dy Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra issued notice to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Additional Chief Secretary to the Governor of State of Kerala and the Secretary of the Governor of West Bengal.

Senior Advocate KK Venugopal, appearing for the State of Kerala, submitted, "This a confusion in the minds of various Governors in the country as to what their powers are in regard to assenting to a bill. In the present case, out of eight bills, two of them had been kept pending for 23 months. Then one for 15 months. Then another for 13 months and 3 others for 10 months. Now, it is a very sad state of affairs. The Constitution itself is being rendered otiose."

CJI said, "We issue notice to the first and the fourth respondent."

Venugopal submitted, "I am challenging the reference itself."

Venugopal also said, "Unless the Lordships, tell the Governors as to when they can refuse to assent and when they can revert to the President."

Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta appeared on behalf of the State of West Bengal.

Gupta said, "I must inform Your Lordship that after we gave notice of mentioning, the Governor's office has sent a letter saying we have reserved some of those Bills for consideration of the President. There is no official correspondence, there is no communication of any kind."

Singhvi further added, "This is now becoming a practice, in Tamil Nadu matter I filed a petition and the moment the matter was listed, two bills were cleared. The next date comes, and again something is sent to the President, I don't understand why the Supreme Court has to list the matter before the Hon'ble Governor's Office Acts".

Venugopal then said, "This referring to the President seems to be an easy way out, where they don't want to corporate with the Legislative Assembly of which they are part. It is an unfortunate state of affairs."

The Court asked the Counsels to prepare a note on the issues and accordingly, listed the matter after three weeks.

The State of West Bengal filed the Petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India being aggrieved by the alleged constitutional crises created by the acts of omissions and commissions of the Governor, State of West Bengal with regard to as many as 8 Key Bills, for which assent under Article 200 of the Constitution, has been withheld de hors the Constitutional mandate.

The petition stated, "The conduct of the Hon’ble 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."

There are eight bills which are pending before the Governor of West Bengal: 1) The West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022; 2) The West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences (Amendment) Bill, 2022; 3) The West Bengal Private University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022; 4) The West Bengal Krishi Viswavidyalaya Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022; 5) The West Bengal University of Health Sciences (Amendment) Bill, 2022; 6) The Aliah University (Amendment) Bill, 2022; 7) The West Bengal Town and Country (Planning and Development) (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and 8) The West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023.

The Petition has inter alia sought the following reliefs, "Declare that the inaction, omission, delay and failure to comply with the constitutional mandate by the Governor of West Bengal through its Secretary/ Respondent No.1 qua the consideration and assent of the Bills passed and forwarded by the State Legislature/Respondent No. 2 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 besides malafide exercise of power and/or; Issue writ/writs including a writ in the nature of Mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, to the Governor of West Bengal through its Secretary/ Respondent No.1, to dispose of all the Bills, files, Government orders forwarded by the State Legislative Assembly and Government which are pending with his office within a specified timeframe."

Cause Title: The State of Kerala v. Union of India (W.P.(C) No. 211/2024) and The State of West Bengal v. Union of India (W.P.(C) No. 278/2024)

Chief Justice DY ChandrachudJustice JB PardiwalaJustice Manoj MisraWest BengalKerala

Aastha Kaushik