Questions from the President

This saga could have been avoided if some Raj Bhavans had kept to the spirit of the Constitution

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The presidential reference is a rarely used constitutional tool; only 14 times since Independence has the President asked the top court of the land for its opinion, and then too, only in high-profile instances such as the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute. Hence its deployment, in the context of the Supreme Court's landmark verdict fixing timelines for governors and the President to clear state bills, only underlines the high stakes involved for the executive branch of government.