[Answered] Examine the question of justiciability of the Governor’s assent to Bills in the Indian context. What insights can be drawn from relevant Supreme Court judgments?

Recently the Tamil Nadu Government passed a resolution urging the President of India to fix a timeline for assent to be given to Bills passed by the assembly. In past, several bills have been pending due to the inactivity by the governor’s office, for example the NEET bill.

Governor’s assent to bills is governed by Article 200, which gives governor the power to either grant assent to a bill, reject it or reserve it for the president’s consideration in certain cases. However, the present trend to delay action on controversial bills indefinitely by governor, has led to a crisis.

The questions that arise related to Governor’s office are:

• The governor is an appointee of centre. Can she delay the bill indefinitely passed by representatives of the people of state, without providing any explanation?
• Can the Supreme Court be asked to pronounce judgement on the action of the Governor?

The past Supreme Court Judgements can help in deciding the course of action:

• The Supreme Court in the Nabam Rebia judgment (2016)ruled that the exercise of the Governor’s discretion under Article 163 is limited, and his choice of action should not be arbitrary or fanciful.
• In another judgement, Shamsher Singh vs State of Punjab (1974), the Supreme Court said that President and Governor shall “exercise their formal constitutional powers only upon and in accordance with the advice of their Ministers, except in a few well-known exceptional situations”.
• In a recent case, Telangana Government was seeking directions to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to clear ten bills passed by the legislative assembly. SC mandated that Governors should not delay over Bills sent to them for assent after they had been passed by Legislative Assemblies. Bills should be returned “as soon as possible” and governors should not sit over them. The expression “as soon as possible” in this article has significant constitutional intent and that constitutional authorities should keep this in mind.

Constitutional experts such as PDT Achary, former Lok Sabha secretary general, highlight that governors do not have the right to keep bills pending. If the governors exercise a pocket veto, it certainly goes against the federal structure.