Landmark verdict: SC brings Prez under judicial review

President shouldn't take more than 3 months in arriving at decision on bills referred by governors

- AGENCIES

While resolving a vexed constitutional situation in Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court (SCO) is believed to have set a three-month deadline for Presidential and gubernatorial assent to bills passed by the legislature for the second time-a decision sparking an outcry over possible 'judicial outreach' by seeking to bring Presidential actions under judicial review.

A Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan set aside Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi's decision to withhold assent to pending 10 bills and, in the process, ruled that the President should also not take more than three months in arriving at a decision on bills referred by governors.

The Bench's verdict, uploaded on its website on Friday evening, seeks to reinterpret the Constitutional scheme of things and casts a shadow on the federal relations between the Centre and states.