The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday (July 22) has issued notice to the Centre and all the state governments on the Presidential Reference made by President Droupadi Murmu dealing with the Court’s power to decide a timeline for assent on Bills to be signed by the Governor and the President.A Constitution Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai, comprising Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, PS Narasimha, AS Chandurkar, have posted the matter for next Tuesday (July 29) directing the Union and state governments to file a response by then.
CJI Gavai stated that the Court may commence the hearing in mid-August.
Counsels appearing for the governments of Kerala and Tamil Nadu raised the questions on maintainability of the Presidential Reference.President Murmu on May 13, had sought Supreme Court’s opinion on whether timelines for the assent of the bills passed by the state legislatures can be imposed through judicial intervention.Read more: President Murmu seeks Supreme Court’s opinion on timelines for assent to Bills, poses 14 questions
Invoking Article 143 (1) of the Constitution, she posed a set of 14 legal questions to the Court on the constitutional scope of powers given to the Governor and the President under Articles 200 and 201.This was following the Supreme Court’s judgement of April 8, where the bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan while hearing the matter of Tamil Nadu government had ruled that the state’s Governor must act on Bills “as soon as possible” without delaying the action indefinitely.The Court had stated that the Governor cannot withhold assent based on “personal dissatisfaction, political expediency, or any other extraneous or irrelevant considerations” calling such measures as unconstitutional. The court had also ruled that the President must decide within three months on any bill referred by a Governor and stated that both “absolute veto” and “pocket veto” are impermissible under the constitutional framework.”The President of India cannot exercise ‘absolute veto’ or ‘pocket veto’ on Bills. If the President does not declare reasons, presumptions of lack of bona fides arises,” the bench observed, as per news agency PTI. First Published: Jul 22, 2025 11:18 AM IST
