The West Bengal government has moved the Supreme Court against Governor CV Ananda Bose for withholding his assent to eight bills without any explanation, reported Live Law.
A writ petition filed by the state under Article 32 of the Constitution (right to constitutional remedies) contended that Bose’s actions are in violation of Article 200 of the Constitution, which deals with the process of presenting bills to a governor for assent once passed by the state’s legislature.
The governor has the power to either accept a bill, reject it or reserve it for the president’s consideration in some cases.
On Friday, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud agreed to consider the West Bengal government’s petition for urgent listing at the behest of its advocate, Astha Sharma.
The petition said that the governor’s refusal to accept the bills threatened to “defeat and subvert” democratic good governance and infringed upon the rights of West Bengal’s citizens to the welfare measures that the pending bills are seeking to implement.
Three of the bills pertain to the governance of institutes of higher education, including the University Laws Amendment Bill, 2022, the University of Animal and Fishery Sciences Amendment Bill, 2022, and the University of Health Sciences Amendment Bill, 2022.
Most of the bills in question were tabled for assent before July 2022, when Jagdeep Dhankhar, who is now the vice president of India, was the governor of West Bengal.
The list also includes the West Bengal Town and Country (Planning and Development) Amendment Bill that was passed by the Assembly and tabled for assent in 2023. CV Ananda Bose became the governor in November 2022.
The West Bengal government referred to a direction of the Supreme Court from 2023, in a case against the Telangana governor, ruling that bills once tabled for assent should be returned as soon as possible, as per the mandate of Article 200.
The Telangana government had moved the Supreme Court to challenge the refusal of Tamilisai Soundararajan, the governor at the time, to act on 10 bills passed by the state legislature.
The West Bengal government also mentioned an earlier case against the Punjab governor, in which the Supreme Court had ruled that governors cannot veto bills passed a state’s legislature by simply “sitting on the bills”.
In November, the Supreme Court had criticised Kerala Governor Arif Muhammad Khan for not returning bills passed by the state Assembly.
Also read: Pocket vetoed: Governors are sitting on bills – and undermining federalism
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!