"Are You Serious?" Supreme Court Asks Kerala In Presidential Reference Hearing

'Are you really serious...' an incredulous Chief Justice BR Gavai asked the Kerala government Tuesday as a five-judge Constitution Bench began hearing the presidential reference over the top court's April 12 order setting the President and Governors to assent to bills passed by states.

"Why can't a five-judge bench hear when the president is asking (a question)? What is wrong with that?" the Chief Justice asked ahead of a potentially landmark hearing concerning power to assent (or withhold assent) to bills passed by state governments, and the larger question of whether the Supreme Court can fix timelines for the President or a Governor to act on a bill.

The Chief Justice's incredulity was in response to former Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the Kerala government, referring to a 'series' of earlier verdicts by the top court that held of a presidential reference is not maintainable.

To this the Chief Justice asked, "... these judgments you are relying on... are they five judges?"

Mr Venugopal said, "No... three and two judges. The question of a five-judge bench would arise if a substantial question of law arises", and the Chief Justice shot back, "But when the President is asking, what is wrong?"

In its April 12 order, in a case related to Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK and Governor RN Ravi, the Supreme Court had sought to regulate this process and ordered that the constitutional heads follow a timeline to clear the pending bills.

It ordered, "We deem it appropriate to adopt the timeline prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs... and prescribe that the President is required to take a decision on the bills reserved for his consideration by the Governor within a period of three months from the date on which such reference is received."

The judgment drew pushback, with President Droupadi Murmu raising queries to the Supreme Court over the constitutionality of such timelines. Under Article 143 of the Constitution, the President posed 14 questions to the top court, seeking its opinion on the powers of the President and Governors under Articles 200 and 201 in dealing with bills passed by the state legislatures.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India BR Gavai in July fixed a time schedule to hear the Presidential reference case and decide on the questions referred to it by the President. The bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, PS Narasimha, and Atul S Chandurkar, had asked the Centre and states to submit their written submissions by August 12.