SC fixes Aug 19-Sep 20 hearing schedule for Presidential Reference; will hear preliminary objection of TN & Kerala on its maintainability
NEW DELHI: A five-judge constitution bench of the SC led by CJI B R Gavai on Tuesday fixed a nine-day schedule to deliberate on a Presidential Reference that has questioned the SC's power to fix timelines for the President and Governors on granting, refusing and withholding assent to Bills passed by Assemblies.
The bench of CJI Gavai, and Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, P S Narasimha and A S Chandurkar said the hearing would commence from Aug 19, when it will first hear senior advocates K K Venugopal and A M Singhvi on behalf of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, respectively, on the states' preliminary objections to maintainability of the Reference.
It said those opposing the reference, represented by Kapil Sibal, Rakesh Dwivedi, Gopal Subramaniam, would be given four days – Aug 19, 20, 21 and 26 - to complete their arguments.
Those supporting the Reference – attorney general R Venkataramani and solicitor general Tushar Mehta – would place their response to maintainability plea as well as the constitutional issues warranting the Reference on Aug 28, Sep 2, 3 and 9.
It reserved Sep 10 for rejoinders by parties and clarified that under no circumstance would the schedule be breached and told lawyers to arrange time-schedule for their arguments through prior consultation.
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It appointed advocate Aman Mehta as the nodal counsel for those supporting Reference and Misha Rohatgi as one for opposers.
'The nodal counsel in consultation with lawyers shall arrange the timetable for the arguing counsel so that the hearing could be completed on Sep 10. The timetable will be followed scrupulously,' the CJI-led bench forewarned.
TOI was first to report on May 15 about the President sending a Reference to the SC for its opinion on the contentious issue of judiciary stepping into the domain of the executive, especially when the Constitution gave no power to the SC to grant deemed assent on behalf of the Governor to Bills.
Critical of the SC's Apr 8 judgment and use of its Article 142 powers to rule that the 10 Bills pending with the TN governor to be deemed to have been assented to, the President had said, 'The concept of a deemed assent of the President and the Governor is alien to the constitutional scheme and fundamentally circumscribes the powers of the President and the Governor'.
The Reference had said Articles 200 and 201, applicable to Governors and the President respectively, 'does not stipulate any time frame or procedure' to be followed by them while considering grant or refusal of assent to a Bill passed by an Assembly.
The Reference has sought the SC's opinion on 14 questions.
Without any express provision in the Constitution, A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan on Apr 8 had set a three-month deadline for the Governor to either grant or return the Bill to the House. If the Bill is re-passed by the House and resent to him, then the governor must grant assent within a month, the SC had ruled. It had also fixed a three-month deadline for the President to decide whether to grant or refuse assent to a Bill.
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