For the first time, the Supreme Court has set a deadline for the President to decide on Bills reserved by the Governor for Presidential assent. The top court said the President must decide on reserved Bills within three months.The court added that the state government can file a writ petition seeking mandamus against the President if there is a default.
“The President of India cannot exercise ‘absolute veto’ or ‘pocket veto’ on Bills. If the President does not declare reasons, presumption of lack of bona fides arises,” the court said.
The development of setting a three-month timeline is significant because under Article 201 of the Constitution, no timeframe has been set for a Presidential decision.On April 8, the Supreme Court held that governors can’t sit over bills passed by the state legislature and fixed a timeline of one to three months for their actions under the Constitution.A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said the expression “as soon as possible” permeates Article 200 with a sense of expediency, and does not allow the governor to “sit on the bills and exercise pocket veto over them”.”Similarly, by virtue of the first proviso intrinsically and inextricably attached to the option of withholding of assent, there is no scope for the governor to declare simpliciter withholding of assent meaning thereby absolute veto is also impermissible under Article 200,” it said.The bench also said there is no expressly specified time limit for the discharge of the functions by the governor under Article 200 of the Constitution.”There is no expressly specified time limit for the discharge of the functions by the governor under Article 200 of the Constitution. Despite there being no prescribed time limit, Article 200 cannot be read in a manner that allows the governor to not take action upon bills which are presented to him for assent and thereby delay, and essentially roadblock law-making machinery in the state,” it said.The bench also said it is fixing a timeline of one to three months for the governors to decide the fate of bills cleared by the state assemblies, keeping in mind the constitutional significance of Article 200 and the role it plays in the federal polity of the country.”Failure to comply with this timeline would make the inaction of the governors subject to judicial review by the courts,” the bench cautioned.The verdict holds importance as several opposition-ruled states such as Kerala, Punjab, Telangana, and West Bengal have approached the apex court against delay in giving assent by governors to bills passed by the respective state assemblies.With inputs from PTI
