- Supreme Court orders Governor to decide on pending bills
The News Freedom
New Delhi, November 10
Declaring the June session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha to be valid, the Supreme Court on Friday asked the Punjab Governor to process the pending bills in accordance with the law. The Supreme Court upheld the validity of the Punjab Assembly session of June 19-20 this year.
“Any attempt to cast doubt on the session of the legislature would be fraught with great perils to democracy. Casting doubt on the validity of the house of sessions is not a constitutional option available to the Governor,” a bench headed by Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, said.
Taking serious note on the petition filed by the Punjab government against the Governor regarding pending bills, the Supreme Court said, “ We are of the view that the Governor of Punjab must now proceed to take decisions on bills submitted for assent that were passed by the House on June 19-20, 2023, which were constitutionally valid,”.
Previously on November 6, the Supreme Court said that governors must act on bills even before the matters come before the apex court and they must know that they are not elected representatives of people.
Following a tussle with the Governor, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on October 20 while participating in the debate on the floor of Vidhan Sabha, had said “The state government will approach the Supreme Court against the Governor to get the pending bills cleared. It is unfortunate that a selected Governor is resorting to bullying tactics to prevent a democratically elected government from taking pro-people decisions.”
Later a few days before the Supreme Court hearing, Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit, wrote a letter to the Chief Minister informing that he will examine all the bills on merit. “I have in consultation with all the concerned and in the larger interest of the welfare of the people of Punjab, decided to examine all the bills on merit as well as in terms of various provisions of the Constitution of India. I will convey to you my decision on each and every bill separately in the coming days,” Purohit had said. The Governor had also approved the Punjab Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023.