‘We have judges who will legislate’: Vice President on SC’s bills assent ruling
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New Delhi: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday expressed ‘very highest level’ of concern over the Supreme Court’s imposing of three-month deadline for the president to approve or reject bills referred by state governors, Scroll reported.
Dhankhar, who served as the West Bengal governor from 2019 to 2022, referring to the Supreme Court’s April 8 judgment, said that ‘So we have judges who will legislate, who will perform executive functions, who will act as super Parliament, and absolutely have no accountability because the law of the land does not apply to them’.
Referencing what he said the court’s ‘directive to the president’, the vice president asked ‘Where are we heading? What is happening in the country?’
The Supreme Court’s judgment followed the Tamil Nadu government’s petition over Governor RN Ravi having not acted on several bills for over three years before rejecting them and sending some to the president.
The bill were related to the state’s higher education including one to remove the governor as the chancellor of state universities.
Only one of the 10 of the re-enacted bills sent to the president in November 2013 was approved, while rejecting seven with two pending.
The court called Governor’s withholding of assent to 10 bills, and referring to the president despite re-enacted by the Assembly as ‘illegal and erroneous’.
The court made it clear that the bills should have been given assent by the Governor after they were passed a second time by the Assembly.
Meanwhile, in the 414-page judgment the court imposed a three-month deadline for the President to either approve or reject such bills.
The bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan made it clear that President should take the court’s advice on bills reserved by governors, adding that the president has no ‘unbridled powers’ to exercise ‘absolute veto’ on any bill.
Responding to this, Dhankhar said: ‘We cannot have a situation where you direct the president of India, and on what basis?’
