Sansad Tv
On the show today we look at the Supreme Court’s opinion on the Presidential reference that sought clarity on whether courts could fix deadlines for constitutional authorities such as the President and Governors to grant or withhold assent to Bills under Articles 200 and 201 of the Constitution. A five-judge bench, led by Chief Justice BR Gavai, opined that judiciary cannot prescribe timelines for governors/the president to act on bills, nor can they invent a doctrine of deemed consent or compel constitutional authorities to seek the court’s opinion on such legislation. Taking over the decision making role of governors or the president violates the separation of powers was the opinion of the bench. However, the bench also clarified that the President or Governors cannot resort to “prolonged and evasive inaction” by sitting endlessly on State Bills awaiting their approval. This would amount to a deliberate attempt to thwart the people’s will expressed through the proposed welfare laws passed by State legislatures. We’ll discuss details of the 111-page opinion given by the five judges on the Presidential reference, but before we proceed a quick recall of how the presidential reference reached the SC. In May this year, President Droupadi Murmu invoked Article 143(1) of the Constitution to seek the SC’s advisory opinion on a set of 14 questions that sought clarity on the nature and limits of the powers exercised by Governors and the president under articles 200 and 201, and whether judicial timelines or deemed assent were constitutionally permissible. So in this context, we’ll try and understand in greater detail about the opinion given by the five-judge bench and whether it overturns the April 8 judgement where a two-judge bench framed guidelines on how quickly governors and the president must decide on bills, and in an unprecedednted move, used Article 142 to treat 10 Tamil Nadu bills as having received ‘deemed assent.’
Guest: Harish Salve, Senior Advocate and Former Solicitor General of India
Anchor: Teena Jha
Producer: Sagheer Ahmad
Guest Coordinator: Deepti Vashisht, Vinod Kumar Singh, Paras Kandpal
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