Governors need code of conduct

The Supreme Court's Constitution Bench has now given the President and governors a significant reprieve by ruling that no court can compel them to grant assent to a bill within a fixed time. In effect, the court has said that the Constitution's silence on timelines cannot be filled by judicial innovation.

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The ruling overturns the earlier two-judge decision in the Tamil Nadu case, which had held that prolonged inaction by a governor amounted to “deemed assent”. This clarification was sought by President Droupadi Murmu herself, after the smaller bench's decision triggered an intense national debate. Her queries were straightforward; the Constitution does not prescribe a timeline under Articles 200 and 201, raising the issue of whether the courts have the authority to impose one, and the scope of judicial scrutiny over the constitutional discretion exercised by the President or governor needed to be clarified.