The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear on May 6
the pleas of the Kerala government against the governor over the delay in
approving bills passed by the state assembly.
A bench comprising Justices P S Narasimha and
Joymalya Bagchi took note of the submissions of senior advocate K K Venugopal,
appearing for the state government, that the verdict of another bench on the
plea of Tamil Nadu covered the issues raised in the present petition.
Venugopal said the judgement delivered by a bench
headed by Justice J B Pardiwala framed guidelines and set timelines for
governors and the President on granting assent to bills.
What is the timeline for making a reference to the
President by the governor and this issue is dealt with by that judgement, the
senior lawyer said.
We will look into that judgement and see whether
issues raised here are covered, the bench said and fixed the pleas for further
hearing on May 6.
Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor
General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the office of the Kerala
governor, differed with Venugopal and said that certain issues were different.
A bench comprising Justices Pardiwala and R Mahadevan
on April 8 delivered a significant verdict on the plea of Tamil Nadu and set
aside the reservation of the 10 bills for the president's consideration in the
second round holding it as illegal, erroneous in law.
The bench, for the first time, prescribed that the
president should decide on the bills reserved for her consideration by the
governor within a period of three months from the date on which such reference
is received.
Kerala seeks similar directions in its case.
The top court on July 26 last year agreed to
consider the plea of Kerala alleging the denial of assent to bills passed by
the legislative assembly.
The Kerala government alleged that the then Governor
Arif Mohammed Khan referred certain bills to President Droupadi Murmu and those
were yet to be cleared.
Taking note of the pleas, the top court issued
notices to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the secretaries of Kerala
Governor.