Satya Prakash

New Delhi, July 26

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Centre and the secretaries to the Governors of Kerala and West Bengal on petitions filed by the two state governments against the denial of assent to Bills and referring those for the consideration of the President.

A three-judge Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud asked the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the secretaries to the two Governors to respond to the petitions after senior advocate KK Venugopal submitted on behalf of the Kerala Government that there was a need for the SC to lay down guidelines as to when a Governor can return a Bill or refer it to the President.

To examine illegal money lending business

• The SC has taken note of growing menace of lending money on interest without having any licence
• It decided to examine the issue and lay down guidelines to check unlicensed moneylenders and rescue borrowers often driven to end their life
• "We are coming across cases where such so-called friendly advances are in crores. We are pained by instances where ordinary laymen take such loans and are at last driven to streets or die by suicide," a Bench led by Justice CT Ravikumar said

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the West Bengal Government, said every time the matter was listed in the SC, the Governor referred Bills to the President.

"Let replies be filed in three weeks and let a joint note be submitted by the states," said the Bench, which included Justice JB Paridwala and Justice Manoj Misra.

Venugopal said, "This is a confusion in the minds of various Governors as to what their powers are in regard to assenting to Bills. In the present case, out of eight Bills, two had been kept pending for 23 months. One for 15 months. Another for 13 months and others for 10 months. It is a very sad state of affairs."

He said the state was challenging the very reference of the Bills to the President. While giving her assent to three Bills, President Droupadi Murmmu chose to withhold assent to four Bills — University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Kerala Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022; the University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022; and the University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022. The Kerala Government has also challenged the President withholding assent for four Bills referred by the Governor.

The SC had on November 29, 2023, said it would consider laying down guidelines as to when the Governors can refer Bills to the President for assent.