Kerala government moves Supreme Court over delay of bills by Governor Arif Mohammed Khan
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Government has moved the Supreme Court against Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, stating the latter is delaying the Bills passed by the state assembly without giving his assent while "defeating the rights of the people of the State" and "violates Article 14 of the constitution."
The state government, in its plea, said, as many as 8 Bills passed by the State Legislature and presented to the Governor for his assent under Article 200 of the Constitution. Of these, 3 Bills have remained pending with the Governor for more than 2 years, and 3 more in excess of a full year.
Notably, the plea comes, days after the Tamil Nadu Government moved a plea in the Supreme Court against Governor RN Ravi over delay in clearing bills passed by the state legislative assembly, saying the latter has been "engaging in politically motivated conduct."
Kerala's plea stated that each of the Bills which are pending with the Governor is in the public interest for the people of Kerala by improving the state of public health infrastructure to tackle communicable diseases [by applying the lessons learnt during the COVID pandemic], by making State University laws consistent with Central laws to create uniform national standards as required by the top court.
"The failure of the Governor to act, thus, affects the rights which would accrue to the people of the State," it said.
The plea submitted that "a Governor who acts in gross disregard and violation of the provisions of the Constitution cannot be said to be functioning in the discharge of his duties as a Governor, since, no Governor is entitled to violate the provisions of the Constitution, whether through his action or inaction."
"The conduct of the Governor, as would presently be demonstrated, threatens to defeat and subvert the very fundamentals and basic foundations of our Constitution, including the rule of law and democratic good governance, apart from defeating the rights of the people of the State to the welfare measures sought to be implemented through the Bills," the plea stated.
In the plea, it was contended that the University Laws Amendment Bill (2nd Amendment) 2021 [APJ Abdulkalam Technical University (Mal)] passed by the Kerala State Legislature was presented to the Governor and is pending for 24 months.
Another, the Kerala Co-operative Societies Amendment Bill 2022 [MILMA] is pending before the Governor over 15 months. "The holding back of the Bill is impeding the much-needed reform in conferring the basic democratic right of voting to the primary diary co-operative societies, " the government said.
A notable bill also includes the Kerala Lok Ayukta Amendment Bill 2022 which was passed by the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan-led government is pending with the Governor for 13 months.
The plea said the delay of over 6 months of "The Public Health Bill 2021" passed by the Kerala State is a "severe setback to the State Government's time-bound action plan to retain its status as a role model to others."