States and their governors
Three state governments are at the SC arguing against the inordinate time taken by their Governors to sign bills. Which are the states and what are those bills?
Tamil Nadu’s petition in the Supreme Court says that Governor R N Ravi has not returned any of the 12 bills sent by the House. Punjab’s petition states that Governor Banwarilal Purohit is yet to give his assent to seven bills, including three money bills (whose assent is needed to present it in the assembly; since the filing of the petition, the Governor has given his nod to two money bills). The Kerala government told the Supreme Court in its petition that eight Bills, passed by the state legislature over the past two years, are pending with Governor Arif Muhammed Khan. The Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, who was hearing Punjab’s petition, remarked on the trend and said, “This has to stop. Why does the party have to come to the Supreme Court? Governors act only when matters reach the Supreme Court,” legal news site Live Law, reported.
All three petitions have been posted for November 10.
Here’s a look at which bills are pending, and why:
Punjab
Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit has been at odds with Bhagwant Mann’s government for well over a year, with the two regularly shooting off letters to each other over government appointments, the convening of assembly sessions, adherence to protocols, fiscal management, etc.
Their tussle escalated further when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government moved the Supreme Court against Purohit for sitting over seven “important” bills. Since then, the Governor has approved two of three money bills that were pending before him. The apex court, which heard the petition on Monday, asked the Governor and chief minister to do some soul-searching. The bills at the centre of the latest row between the two sides include three money bills sent by the Mann government to Purohit for prior approval last month so as to table them in the House and four others passed by the state assembly in June this year.
The money bills include the Punjab Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2023, the Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the Punjab Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which were slated to be tabled in the Punjab assembly during the special session on October 19 and 20. The first bill aims to pave the way for the establishment of a GST Appellate Tribunal and the imposition of GST on online gaming in the state. The second seeks to impose stamp duty on mortgaging property. The third bill seeks to align the state law with the Central law.
The state government sent the three bills to the Purohit, the governor’s prior approval is required to table money bills in the House. Purohit, who has disapproved of the practice of adjourning the assembly sine-die and then calling the special sittings of the House without his approval, withheld the approval for the three bills. The House was adjourned sine-dine in March, and reconvened in June.
In a letter to the CM, he advised the state government to call either a monsoon or winter session instead. Mann responded that his government would approach the Supreme Court against the governor’s refusal to approve the money bills. Purohit later softened his stance telling the CM in a letter on October 29 that he would examine all the bills on merit in the larger interest of the people of the state. He later granted approval to The Punjab Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023. Official sources in Raj Bhavan said the third money bill is under consideration, and the governor is likely to take a call on it in a day or two.
The state government’s petition in the court listed four other “important” bills: the Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2023, the Punjab Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023, The Punjab Police (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the Punjab Affiliated Colleges (Security of Service) Amendment Bill, 2023. The Punjab assembly passed these bills during the two-day special session on June 19 and 20 this year, but their fate hangs in the balance as the Governor had questioned the “legality” of the session.
The first aims at providing a free-to-air telecast of Gurbani from Amritsar’s Golden Temple in Amritsar by amending the British-era Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925 and ensuring that it is not commercialised in any manner. Mann has been at loggerheads with the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee for the exclusive rights to telecast Gurbani from the Golden Temple to a private channel. The Punjab Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023 seeks to replace the Governor with the CM as chancellor of 11 state-run universities. The AAP government brought the bill following a standoff with the Governor over the procedure to appoint vice-chancellors of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) and Punjab Agricultural University (PAU). The third bill seeks to do away with the Supreme Court-mandated procedure in the selection of the state police chief. The fourth aims to streamline the working of the Educational Tribunal.
This is the second time that the government approached the Supreme Court against the Governor this year. In February, it accused the Governor of refusing permission to summon the budget session and moved the top court.
The tussle between Mann and Purohit started last year when the state government decided to convene a special session on September 22 following an allegation by the AAP that the BJP tried to poach 10 party MLAs. The Governor first gave the consent but then withdrew the order regarding summoning the special session, citing the absence of specific rules regarding convening the assembly to only bring a confidence motion. The AAP decided to hold a regular session of the state assembly on September 27, and party MLAs held a protest against the Governor’s decision. The Governor approved the regular session but not before he and Mann took potshots at each other over the details of legislative business to be taken up in the House. A few days later, Purohit undertook a two-day trip to six border districts, and his remarks voicing concern over rampant illegal mining and drug menace riled the ruling party. They have had frequent standoffs since.
Tamil Nadu
The petition, filed on October 30 listed 12 petitions as well as government decisions such as sanctions for prosecution of corrupt former legislators, remission orders, appointments and recruitments that are also awaiting approval from the governor.
On November 2, the state government filed a second writ petition in the top court challenging three notifications issued by the governor for a search committee to appoint vice-chancellors to three universities.
The state moving the Supreme Court is a culmination of conflicts between Governor RN Ravi and the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu over various administrative issues and ideological differences ever since the former took over in September 2021, three months after the government came to power.
The DMK has been accusing Ravi of functioning like an agent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In October, chief minister M K Stalin went as far as to accuse Ravi of turning the office of the Governor into a BJP party headquarters. He said this in retaliation to the Raj Bhavan’s criticism of Tamil Nadu police, after a Molotov cocktail attack on the main gate of the Governor’s official complex. Earlier this year, MPs of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance in Tamil Nadu requested President Droupadi Murmu to recall the Governor.
The Governor has also been unsparing in his remarks on Dravidian politics, summarily deciding to call the state Tamizhagam, and removing arrested minister V Senthil Balaji from the cabinet only to retract his decision. Earlier this year, he omitted certain key parts of the speech during the Governor’s address in the assembly session and he walked out midway when Stalin moved a resolution declaring that only the printed copy of the Governor’s address would be taken on record.
The pendency over the bills is a symptom of a larger problem, analysts agreed.
“He is showing his opposition by acting like a bureaucrat who keeps files pending,” said political analyst Ramu Manivanna. Ravi, a retired IPS officer was previously an interlocutor for Nagaland. Ravi had earlier returned two key bills — to ban online gambling with stakes and to abolish the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). The House then passed these two bills again. “As per the law, the Governor cannot deny assent to a bill sent to him for the second time,” law minister S Reghupathy had said. The anti-NEET bill is now pending with the President of India, while the anti-gambling legislation has come into force in the state.
Other pending bills include the amendment to the Tamil Nadu Fisheries University Act (2012) and the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University Act, 1989.
In 2022, bills to amend various University laws such as the Tamil Nadu Universities Laws, and Chennai University Act (1923) were passed. Each state university is governed by its own set of laws, the government sought to amend each of them. Besides this, a bill to provide for the establishment of a university for Siddha, Ayurveda, Unani, Yoga and Naturopathy and Homoeopathy was also sent to the Raj Bhavan.
Two of these bills (one to amend the University laws of 12 state-run universities while the other amends the Chennai University Act) were passed to empower the state government to appoint Vice-Chancellors to state-run universities — a task that otherwise falls to the Governor, who is the ex-officio chancellor of state universities. This is the matter of contention in the second petition.
On September 6, the Governor announced that three search-cum selection committees to appoint vice-chancellors to the University of Madras, Bharathiar University in Coimbatore and the Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University in Chennai will be constituted. He also introduced a fourth member of the committee by nominating a person on behalf of the Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC). Hitherto the process was that the governor, government and the university would appoint a nominee each to form a three-member search-cum selection committee.
On September 13, the higher education department under Minister K Ponmudy (who is also the pro-chancellor of state universities) issued a notification for a search-cum-selection committee by excluding the nominee of the UGC chairman. This angered the Governor, who called the government’s actions an “act of impropriety” and demanded that the state withdraw their notification. As a result of this standoff, the three universities have been headless for months.
The DMK-led state government has also sent requests to initiate prosecution for corruption against four AIADMK former ministers and party heavyweights — K C Veeramani, B V Ramana, C Vijayabhaskar and M R Vijayabhaskar. A request to accord sanction for initiating a preliminary enquiry against G Bhaskaran, former Vice-Chancellor, Thanjavur University is also pending. While the AIADMK has described this as a political vendetta, the DMK has questioned if Ravi was protecting the former ministers who were allies of the BJP until September. The state BJP’s president K Annamalai often jumping in to defend the governor has played into the DMK’s accusation that the national hegemon is using governors as tools to interfere in states where they are not ruling.
The Raj Bhavan has not responded to questions and so far the governor has not made any statement on the pendency of the bills. He has only made his support clear for NEET and the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 which is also being opposed by the DMK.
The conflict and impasse over the bills has come to a point where Stalin in October in a sardonic tone urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah not to recall R N Ravi, at least until the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, since his criticism against Dravidianism was adding strength to the DMK’s campaign.
Kerala
The Kerala government told the Supreme Court in its petition on November 2 that eight bills passed by the state legislature over the past two years are pending with Governor Arif Muhammed Khan for assent. The bills include University Laws Amendment Bill (1st Amendment) Bill No. 50, University Laws Amendment Bill (1st Amendment) Bill No. 54, University Laws Amendment Bill (2nd Amendment), Kerala Co-operative Societies Amendment Bill, University Laws Amendment Bill, Kerala Lokayukta Amendment Bill, University Laws Amendment Bill 2022 and Public Health Bill 2021.
“Of these, three bills have remained pending with the Governor for more than two years, and three more in excess of a full year. The conduct of the Governor 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 state’s petition read.
The governor's assent is required for clear bills passed by the state Assembly under Article 200 of the Constitution.
Among the bills pending for assent, the University Laws Amendment Bill, 2022 was introduced and passed in December 2022 and amends eight Acts that each establish a university in the state. While the governor is the ex-officio chancellor of each university under the acts, the bill removes the provision and allows the state government to appoint the Chancellor of each university. This is cited as one of the reasons why the Governor may be reluctant to give his nod to the bill.
The bill also specifies certain qualifications for a person to assume the post of Chancellor. It also amends sections of the acts to provide that for all eight universities, the Pro-Vice Chancellor will be authorised by the Chancellor to carry out the functions of the VC.
Five of the eight bills pending with the Governor are thus related to amendments in university laws.
Another bill lying at the Raj Bhavan is the Kerala Lokayuktas Amendment Bill which sought to make the executive the appellate authority over reports by the Lokayukta, the anti-corruption watchdog. The bill was passed in the state assembly in August 2022 after the Congress-led opposition walked out in protest against the legislation. The opposition alleged that the amendment would only weaken the Lokayukta while the ruling LDF said it was brought to get the state to act in accordance with the Centre.
The Public Health Bill 2021 is another piece of legislation waiting for a nod from the Governor. The bill seeks to 'enhance the administration of public health in the state' and provides for authorities working at a three-tier level of state, district and local to prevent and control emerging diseases, outbreaks of communicable diseases and prevalence of non-communicable diseases. Ayush practitioners had protested against the bill as they claimed it would exclude them from decision-making and administrative roles.
Meanwhile, Khan told reporters on Tuesday, “I can take decisions only after the government clarifies the questions that I have raised. They have not clarified.”
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