Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has signed five Bills passed by the Kerala Assembly, some of which were under his consideration for over two years. The Governor signed the Bills amid an ongoing legal fight with the State government approaching the Supreme Court arguing that the Governor was behaving like an adversary by keeping the Bills pending for years.
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The Supreme Court had observed in November last year that neither reason nor justification was given by the Governor to keep the Bills pending for such an “inordinately long period”. Speaking to presspersons on Saturday, Mr. Khan said that he had signed the Bills a few days ago.
“I signed the five Bills a few days ago. You came to know about it today after the polling. This has nothing to do with the court. We had received so many petitions against all these Bills. So, we had to send it to the government and seek their comments. Later, other people also came with their petitions, including those who were in favour. Taking an overall view, it was decided to pass the Bill. All of it takes some time,” Mr. Khan told presspersons.
The Bills that the Governor signed include Kerala Government Land Assignment Amendment Bill, Abkari Amendment Bill, Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Amendment Bill and Kerala Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill.
As per the Article 200 of the Constitution of India, when a State Legislature passes a Bill, the Governor can either give assent to the Bill or withhold assent or reserve the Bill for the consideration of the President. It does not specify a time limit for action on Bills submitted to the Governor. The Kerala government had argued that the Governor subverted the Constitution and acted in a manifestly arbitrary manner by keeping the Bills passed by the State Legislature for an indefinite period. It also sought to get a declaration from the apex court that the Governor was bound to dispose of every Bill presented to him within a reasonable time.