'What was the Governor of Kerala doing by suppressing the bill for two years?' Supreme Court expressed displeasure over the bill

The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed displeasure over Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan. The top court expressed displeasure over Governor Arif 'sitting' on the bills passed by the state legislature for two years. The court said it would consider laying down guidelines as to when the Governor can send bills to the House for the President's assent.

"The Governor has not given any reason for keeping the bills pending," a bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud said. The Supreme Court has asked Governor Khan to meet Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the minister concerned to discuss the laws. Also said that we hope that some 'political foresight' will work.

A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud took note of the arguments of Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for the Governor, which said that the Governor has "reserved" seven of the eight bills for consideration by the President, while Khan agrees to a bill.

The bench comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra asked, "What was the Governor doing by suppressing the bill for two years?" On this, the Attorney General said that he did not want to go into details because doing so would open many questions. At the same time, the bench said, "We will consider it deeply."

"This is about our accountability to the Constitution and people ask us about it," the bench said. Apart from this, the top court allowed the Kerala government to amend its plea seeking to issue guidelines for the state governors to assent or reject the bills passed by the assemblies within the time limit.

"We will record that the Governor will discuss the matter relating to the Bill with both the Chief Minister and the Minister-in-charge," the bench said. CJI Chandrachud said, "Let us hope that some political foresight will prevail over the state and let us hope that some foresight will work. If that does not happen, we are sitting here to make laws and perform our duty under the Constitution." "