'Search soul': SC slams guvs for sitting on bills

Governors must remember that they are not the elected representatives of states and have limited power over legislative actions of an elected government, the Supreme Court said on Monday, seeking a detailed account of action taken by Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit on four bills, which the state government claimed he has withheld for an inordinate period and inexplicable reasons.

- Utkarsh Anand

Expressing its anguish over a trend of governors acting on bills only after the states approached the Supreme Court, a bench led by Chief Justice of IndiaDhananjaya Y Chandrachud said that governors should not compel the state governments to pursue legal recourses each and every time the latter exercised their legislative powers.

“It happened in Telangana also. There are other states also approaching this court regarding pending bills. Why do parties have to come to the Court? Governors must act even before they come to the Supreme Court. After they come to the Court, Governors start acting. This has to stop,” the bench, which also comprised justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, told solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Punjab governor.

As Mehta said that the governor has acted on the bills and that he can put on record an updated status report, the bench fixed the next hearing of the petition filed by the Bhagwant Mann-government on November 10.

Earlier in April, hours before the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear a petition filed by the Telangana government against governor Tamilisai Soundararajan for creating a “constitutional impasse” by refusing to act on several bills, the governor signed off on three bills. The petition was later disposed of even as the top court held that the expression “as soon as possible” under Proviso 1 of Article 200 has significant constitutional intent and must be borne in mind by all constitutional authorities. The provision states that “the governor may, as soon as possible, after the presentation to him of the bill for assent, return the bill if it is not a money bill”.