SC asks TN chief minister and Governor to talk and resolve pending bills issue

New Delhi:  Amidst the controversy and uncertainty over governors of different states sitting on bills passed by the state legislatures, the Supreme Court on Friday asked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin tomeet Governor R N Ravi to try to resolve the matter of pending bills through talks.

The grant of assent to bills has been a bone of contention between the chief ministers of Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.  During the court hearing in all three cases,  the Supreme Court had passed accusative comments against governors commenting that they cannot indefinitely hold such bills, which were passed by elected representatives,  without either giving assent or referring them to the President if circumstances warrant.

On Friday, a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of the submissions of senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the state government, that the governor has now remanded the readopted Bills for consideration by the President.

“We would like the governor to resolve the impasse...We will appreciate it if the governor resolves the impasse with the chief minister. I think the governor invites the chief minister and let them sit down and discuss it," the bench said and fixed December 11 as the date to hear the plea.

The CJI however stopped short of issuing any directive to the Governor,  in view of the high office of the governor.

"We are conscious of the fact that we are dealing with high constitutional functionaries,” it said.

Referring to Article 200 of the Constitution, the bench said the governor cannot send the bills to the President after they were readopted by the legislative assembly upon getting them back from the office of the governor earlier.

Earlier, the top court had questioned the delay on the part of Ravi in granting assent to several Bills passed by the state Assembly, asking why should governors wait for parties to move the top court with their grievances.

Posing tough questions, it asked what the governor had been doing for three years, noting that the Bills have been pending since January 2020.

The top court was hearing the Tamil Nadu government's plea alleging delay by Governor Ravi in granting assent to Bills.

The bench also posted Tamil Nadu's plea for reconsideration for December 11.

(With inputs from PTI)