THE UNION GOVERNMENT TODAY told a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court that a Governor is not a post office and in his “wisdom”, can sound a death-knell for a bill by withhold it, without exercising the option of returning it back to the State legislature for reconsideration or reserving it for consideration by the President.
In his argument spread over the entire day, the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a five-judge Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice B.R. Gavai, and Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Atul S Chandurkar, that besides the powers to give an assent to a bill, or return it for reconsideration by the legislature or reserving it for consideration by the President, the Governor also has, under Article 200 of the Constitution, powers to withhold a Bill indefinitely, shutting the legislature from re-enacting it.
He argued that the Governor can withhold a Bill in his “wisdom” without taking recourse to either assenting it, returning it to the legislature with a message for reconsideration, or referring it to the President as provided under Article 200.
Apprehensive about the position advanced by the Solicitor General, the Chief Justice Gavai observed, “Are we then not giving total powers to the Governor?...The government elected by majority will be at the whims of the Governor.”
The Solicitor General noted that the Governor would take recourse to such a “withholding of a bill” in the rarest of rare circumstances.”
