Supreme Court to give opinion on presidential reference over timelines for Governors, President on state bills

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce its opinion on Thursday on President Droupadi Murmu's reference whether timelines can be imposed on Governors and the President for granting assent to bills passed by state legislature.

A five-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India B R Gavai had reserved its opinion on September 11, after 10 days of proceedings, wherein arguments were heard from the Centre, several state governments, political leaders, parties and others.

The bench also comprised of Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, P S Narasimha and Atul S Chandurkar.

On April 8, a two-judge bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan in the case of State of Tamil Nadu against Governor of Tamil Nadu, held that the State Governor must act within three months if withholding assent or reserving a Bill, and within one month when a bill is reenacted. 

It also prescribed that the President should decide on the Bills reserved for her consideration by the Governor within three months from the date on which such a reference is received.

The court had also declared that the Tamil Nadu Governor’s decision to withhold assent to 10 bills was "illegal" and "arbitrary".

The court used power under Article 142 of the Constitution to declare those bills as passed and assented.

While exercising her power under the rarely used Article 143 (1) of the Constitution, President Murmu on May 13 made the reference, raising 14 questions of law and seeking opinions of the Supreme Court.