The Supreme Court on Tuesday termed as illegal and erroneous in law, the action of Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi withholding assent for 10 bills, the oldest of them pending since January 2020, and reserving them for the President nod after they were re-enacted by the State Legislature.
The Bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan held that consequential steps taken by the President on the said 10 bills were also declared non-est in law.
The top court of the country declared that 10 Bills would be deemed to have received the assent of the Governor when they were presented in the second round after they were passed again by the State Assembly.
It observed that the Governor did not act with bona fides as the bills were sent to the President after he himself sat over them over a long time. The Bills were reserved for the President soon after the Apex Court reserved its judgment in the Punjab Governor’s case, which held that the Governors could not veto the bills by sitting over them.
The judgment authored by Justice Pardiwala held that there was no concept of absolute veto or pocket veto under the Constitutional scheme.
As per Article 200 of the Constitution, the Governor was expected to take one of the three courses of action on bills – grant assent to bills, withhold assent to bills or reserve the bills for the President. The top court of the country held that the Bill could be reserved for the President only at the first instance.
It said as a general rule, it is not open for the Governor to reserve a Bill for the President after the bills have been re-presented by the Government after being passed again by the Assembly. The only exception was when the bill presented in the second round was different from the first version, noted the Bench.
The Court further laid down timelines for the Governors’s decision under Article 200 on the bills sent by the Assembly.