GOVERNOR’S ASSENT TO BILL

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Context: The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly passed a resolution tabled by the Chief Minister requesting the Union Government and the President of India to deliver suitable directions to the Governor to give his assent to bills passed by the Assembly within a certain time frame.

Details

• The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly passed a resolution introduced by the Chief Minister requesting the Union Government and the President of India to deliver suitable directions to the Governor, requiring him to give his assent to bills passed by the Assembly within a certain time frame.
• The Chief Minister highlighted the Justice Rajmannar Committee's remark that "it is an ideal time to abolish the post of Governor, and the Governor should be a detached figure."

Issue related to the Governor’s power to Assent the Bill

• The Governors occasionally sat on Bills for indefinite periods without giving assent or returning them, even though the Constitution required it to be done as quickly as feasible.
• The Governors have been waiting months to reserve the Legislation for the President's assent, even though it was supposed to be done instantly.

The Constitutional power of the Governor related to State Bills

• Article 200 of the Indian Constitution deals with the Governor's powers in relation to assenting to legislation enacted by the State legislature and other functions of the Governor such as reserving the bill for consideration by the President.
• Article 201 relates to "Bills Reserved for Consideration": Governors have absolute veto power, suspense veto power (except on money bills), but no pocket veto power.
  • Absolute Veto: This refers to the Governor's power to refuse to sign a bill passed by the Assembly.
  • Suspensive Veto: A suspensive veto is used by the Governor when he returns a bill to the State Assembly for reconsideration. If the Assembly resends the bill to the Governor, with or without alteration, he must approve it without using any of his veto powers.
    • The Governor may not use his suspensive veto in connection to the Money Bill
  • Pocket Veto: Power of the President, in pocket veto, the bill is held pending indefinitely. He neither rejects nor sends the measure back for review.

The Constitutional power of the President related to State Bills

• The governor has the authority to reserve certain types of bills enacted by the state legislature for the President's consideration. The Governor will then play no further role in the bill's passage.
• The President might refuse to sign such measures not only in the first instance but also in the second. As a result, the President has absolute veto power (rather than a suspensive veto) over state legislation.
• The President has the power to veto state laws through a pocket veto.

Rajamannar Committee

About

• The Rajamannar Commission was a three-person commission established by the Tamil Nadu government in 1969 to investigate all areas of centre-state relations.
• The Rajamannar Committee's major goal was to look into all elements of Centre-State relations and to explore and identify the origins of unitary tendencies in Central-State relations.
• The Rajamannar Commission issued its recommendations in 1971, however, the Central Government did not consider them.

Recommendations made by the Commission

• An Inter-State Council should be formed immediately.
• Every Bill of national importance or likely to influence the interests of one or more States shall be referred to the Inter-State Council before being introduced in Parliament, and its comments should be conveyed to Parliament at the time the Bill is introduced.
• The Finance Commission should be made permanent.
• The Planning Commission should be dissolved and replaced by a statutory authority.
• Articles 356, 357, and 365 (which deal with the President's Rule) should be deleted entirely.
• The provision stating that the state minister serves at the discretion of the governor should be removed.
• Some Union List and Concurrent List subjects should be moved to the State List.
• The residuary powers should be allocated to the states.
• The all-India services (IAS, IPS, and IFS) should be phased out.
• The committee advocated for the state legislature to have residuary legislative and taxing authority.
• The Committee highlighted the reasons underlying the country's current unitary trends.

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