The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the West Bengal and Kerala governors’ offices on two separate pleas by the two states stating that the governors were sitting over the bills passed by the respective state legislatures and sent to them for accent a long time ago.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice J B Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra issued the notice to the additional chief secretary, the West Bengal governor, and the Central government. A similar notice was issued to the additional chief secretary to the Kerala governor and the Central government on the Kerala government’s petition.

The top court gave three-week time to file a reply to the notice

The court asked the concerned respondent to file a reply in three weeks.

Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the West Bengal government, told the bench that whenever it hears a similar matter, some bills are cleared. He also mentioned that similar things happened in the Tamil Nadu matter as well.

Senior Advocate KK Venugopal, representing the Kerala government, said that the bills have been pending for eight months and that the State is a challenging reference of the pending bills to the President

The petition filed by the advocate Astha Sharma for the West Bengal government states that the Governor was withholding the assent of eight bills and this was affecting the people of the State for whose welfare the bills were passed.

“The conduct of the governor, not only threatens to defeat and subvert the very fundamentals and basic foundation of our Constitution, including the rule of law and democratic good governance, but further proceeds to infringe upon the rights of the people of the State to the welfare measures sought to be implemented through the bills, thereby leading to the State failing in its duties as the paren parties,” says the West Bengal government’s petitioner.

The West Bengal government in its plea has said that the eight bills that were passed in 2022, have been kept in limbo without any action, thereby rendering the actions of the State Legislature otiose, and in turn directly affecting the residents of the State, for whose welfare the Bills were passed, and thereby creating an unconstitutional state of affairs by the Constitutional post itself.

The West Bengal government has urged the top court to declare that the inaction, omission, delay, and failure to comply with the constitutional mandate by Governor C V Ananda Bose, is an unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable, and besides malafide exercise of power.

The West Bengal Government also sought the laying down of the guidelines stipulating the outer time limit for the Governor to consider files, policies, and government orders sent for signature in the discharge of his constitutional functions.

A governor, the West Bengal government’s petition reads, who is a constitutional functionary but acts in gross disregard and violates the provisions of the Constitution, cannot be said to be functioning in the discharge of his duties as the Governor through either his actions or inactions.

The eight bills pending assent of the Governor since 2022 include the West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022, The West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences (Amendment) Bill, 2022, The West Bengal Private University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022, The West Bengal Krishi Viswavidyalaya Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022, The West Bengal University of Health Sciences (Amendment) Bill, 2022, The Aliah University (Amendment) Bill, 2022, The West Bengal Town and Country (Planning and Development) (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and The West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023.

The Kerala government has moved the top court against the State Governor’s decision to reserve some bills for the assent of the President and said that “the conduct of the Governor in keeping bills pending for long is manifestly arbitrary.

In the plea, the Kerala Government has sought to declare that the act of the Governor of Kerala in reserving the seven bills—University Laws (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2021; University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Kerala Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022; the University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Kerala Lok Ayukta (Amendment) Bill, 2022; The University Laws (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2022; and The University Laws (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill, 2022 for the consideration of the President, was illegal and lacked bona fides.