SC’s refusal to set deadlines for Governors to decide on Bills baffling, says Govindan

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State committee on Friday stated that the Supreme Court’s finding — that the apex judiciary cannot prescribe a time limit for the President and Governors to grant or deny assent to Bills passed by State legislatures — did not provide any resolution to the urgent Constitutional question of whether laws passed by provincial governments can be kept in a lengthy limbo.

CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan told a press conference on Friday that former Attorney General and jurist Mukul Rohatgi had called the Supreme Court order “confusing and against the spirit of cooperative federalism”. 

‘Avoidable litigation’

Mr. Govindan said the apex court’s decision has left State governments, mainly non-BJP administrations, and the public baffled. By setting aside an earlier two-judge Division Bench ruling, which said that prolonged delays by Governors in deciding on Bills passed by the Assembly would give the provincial government the power to deem the Bills as accepted, the SC had inadvertently opened the door for avoidable vexatious litigation.

The Division Bench ruling had correctly set deadlines for Governors to decide on Bills and, consequently, upheld the federal rights of States by allowing them to consider any postponement without a valid reason as “deemed assent,” he said. Several State governments had found the Constitutional Bench’s decision wanting and severely short of resolving the conflict, the CPI(M) State secretary said.

On SIR

“The CPI(M)’s legal and political fight against the SIR would march in lockstep with its attempt to ensure that every voter above the age of 18 in Kerala finds their place on the voter list,” he said. Mr. Govindan accused the Election Commission of India (EC) of slave-driving government employees to the brink of desperation and suicide by unreasonably pressuring them to complete the SIR process alongside the local body election-related duties.

Mr. Govindan accused the Congress of kowtowing to the BJP’s political line by demanding a CBI investigation into the Sabarimala gold theft case. “At a stroke, the Congress has signalled mistrust in the High Court-monitored investigation,” he said.

“Congress held up legislative business in the Assembly for days on end by parroting the BJP’s malicious propaganda that the government was somehow culpable in the Sabarimala gold theft case. The Opposition wilfully chose to ignore that the government had batted for a High Court-monitored investigation into the felony,” he added. 

Mr. Govindan accused the Congress of begetting Hindu majoritarian communalism by courting conservative Islamist forces shortsightedly for a “few votes” in the local body polls.