Governors should decide on bills immediately: West Bengal tells Supreme Court

The argument came after Tamil Nadu said there must be fixed timelines for the governor or President to decide on bills, as laid down by a recent (April 8) decision of the top court. This decision by a two-judge bench fixed a three-month deadline for the President to decide on bills referred by a governor, and one month for a governor to act on re-enacted bills. In the event the governor withholds consent, the judgment required him to return the bill to the legislature within three months.

Appearing for West BengalBengalBengal, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said, “The fact that the governor is required to deal with a bill of the legislature, there is an element of immediacy involved because legislative measures cannot await executive stonewalling.”

The five-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai, and justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, PS Narasimha and AS Chandurkar questioned Sibal’s “immediacy” argument by asking whether the governor is bound to assent and not withhold assent. Sibal said that the governor cannot withhold assent. He submitted, “You cannot have the executive becoming a roadblock in implementing the will of the people represented by the elected legislature.”