The Kerala government has moved the Supreme Court against the President’s refusal to give assent to four out of the seven bills referred to it by Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan.
The writ petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution by the State of Kerala also challenged the Governor’s action of referring the bills to the President, arguing that none of the bills were related to Centre-State relations, so as to require the Presidential assent.
Out of the seven Bills, which were related to amendments to laws concerning State Universities and Cooperative Societies, the Governor kept them pending for several months, ranging from seven to 24 months from the date when the bills were passed by the Assembly, noted the plea.
The Kerala government had earlier filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court challenging the Governor’s inaction. After the Supreme Court issued notice on the petition on November 20, the Governor referred the seven bills to the President.
On November 29, while hearing the petition, the Supreme Court criticised the Governor for sitting over the bills.
On February 29, the President withheld assent from four bills and approved three other bills.
He Bills on which the President withheld assent are. 1) University Laws (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2021, 2) the Kerala Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022, 3) the University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022 , and 4) the University Laws (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill, 2022.