A JUDGMENT THAT LETS GOVERNORS STALL BILLS AT WILL

HE advisory opinion issued by a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court has, for all practical purposes, reduced India’s representative democracy toa plaything in the hands of a governor.

- ASHISH GOEL

The opinion was expressed in response to a Presidential Reference in light of the April 8 verdict returned by a twojudge bench of the court that emphatically called out the Tamil Nadu governor for his blatant disregard for the Constitution through calculated gubernatorial procrastination. The context is that the governor sat on 12 bills — some dating back to 2020 — for several years. When the aggrieved state government approached the court in November 2023, the governor referred two bills for the President’s consideration. Thereafter, the state Assembly convened a special session and re-passed the remaining 10 bills for which assent was withheld. When these 10 bills were re-presented before him, the governor referred them for President’s consideration. Out of

these 10 bills, only one bill was assented to by the President, while the remaining were either rejected or kept pending.