Govt warns against SC setting timelines for Prez, guvs on bills

The Union government has cautioned the Supreme Court that imposing fixed timelines on governors and the president to act on state bills, as mandated by the court in an April ruling, would amount to one organ of government assuming powers not vested in it, upsetting the delicate separation of powers and leading to a “constitutional disorder”.

- Utkarsh Anand

In detailed written submissions filed in a presidential reference under Article 143, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that the apex court cannot, even under its extraordinary powers in Article 142, amend the Constitution or defeat the intent of its framers by creating procedural mandates where none exist in the constitutional text.