The Kerala Government on Wednesday again moved the Supreme Court against Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, accusing him of trying to “defeat the rights of the people” of the state by indefinitely sitting on crucial bills.
The second petition – the Special Leave Petition (SLP) – filed by the state government a week after the first plea, requests the court to make the Governor a party in the case.
The Special Leave Petition has been filed by the state’s Chief Secretary and Law Secretary against a 2022 High Court ruling that refused to fix a time limit for the Governor to deal with Bills presented to him under Article 200 of the Constitution
The Kerala government, in its SLP, submitted that the first provision of Article 200, which governs the conduct of the Governor when a Bill is presented to him for assent, mandates for immediate consideration and action.
The Governor can either declare his assent to the Bill, return it with a message to the House or refer it to the President. However, the Article requires the Governor to act “as soon as possible,” that is within a reasonable time.
According to the state government’s petition, the Governor is doing gross injustice to the people and the members of the assembly by delaying the decision on the Bills.
Earlier, the Kerala government had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court, alleging that the Governor was delaying the decision on the bills passed by the state assembly and thereby denying the rights of the people of the state and “violates Article 14 of the constitution.”
In its writ petition, the Kerala government has sought a declaration from the Supreme Court that Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has “failed to exercise his Constitutional powers and duties” in holding the Bills passed by the State Legislature for a long and indefinite period.
It also sought to get a declaration from the apex court that the Governor was bound to dispose of every Bill presented to him within a reasonable time. The Governor shall also be directed to dispose of the pending Bills without any further delay, the state government stated in its petition.
The Supreme Court on Monday expressed its anguish over a trend of Governors acting on bills only after the states approached the Supreme Court. A bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said that Governors should not compel the state governments to pursue legal recourses each and every time the latter exercised their legislative powers.