By S.N. Sahu
After sitting on eight Bills passed by the Kerala assembly for several months – in some cases for over two years – Kerala governor Arif Mohammed Khan gave his assent to one Bill but referred seven others to President Droupadi Murmu for her consideration last month.
Justice Rohinton Nariman, formerly of the Supreme Court, described Khan’s decision as one of the four disturbing developments of 2023. He said so while delivering the Smt. Bansari Sheth Endowment Lecture on ‘Constitution: Checks and Balances’, where he cited three other worrisome developments.
These were the constitutionally flawed judgement of the Supreme Court upholding the validity of the abrogation of Article 370, the Modi regime’s raid on the BBC for a documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots, and the passage of a Bill in parliament concerning the selection of the election commissioner(s) by a committee in which the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has been replaced by a government minister.
The Kerala governor took the decision on those Bills a day before the Supreme Court was to take up the Kerala government’s petition accusing the governor of “subverting” the constitution and acting in an “arbitrary” manner by keeping the Bills pending for an “indefinite period.”
He was paralysing the legislative functioning of the elected assembly and subverting its law-making process. His action was not in tune with his mandate in Article 200 of the constitution, which provides that a governor should take a decision as soon as possible on Bills sent to him.
By impeding the legislative functioning of an assembly, the governor, who takes the oath to “preserve, protect and defend the constitution” is flagrantly violating it in letter and spirit.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here .