The Supreme Court on Tuesday pressed the Kerala government with a blunt query, “Are you serious?”, as a five-judge Constitution Bench examined the presidential reference concerning timelines for Governors and the President to decide on state bills.
Chief Justice BR Gavai’s remarks came when former Attorney General KK Venugopal argued earlier judgments had held such references non-maintainable. “Those were by benches of two or three judges. Here, when the President is asking, what’s wrong with us hearing it?” the Chief Justice said.
The reference stems from the Court’s April 12 order in the Tamil Nadu DMK vs Governor RN Ravi case, which mandated constitutional heads to act within three months. President Murmu later sought clarity under Article 143, posing 14 questions on the constitutional framework of assenting to bills.
The matter is being heard by CJI Gavai and Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, PS Narasimha, and Atul S Chandurkar, with written submissions filed by August 12.