Murmu asks SC: ’How can you fix deadline for President, Governors’ nod to bills?’

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, May 15, 2025: In a sharp response to the Supreme Court’s verdict on fixing deadlines for the governor and the President to decide on state Bills, President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday asked the apex court how it could have given such a ruling when the Constitution had no such stipulations.

The President’s response came after the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, in April, permitted judicial intervention if Governors delay assent to legislative bills for an extended period. Additionally, the bench noted that the President must take a decision within three months on bills referred by Governors.

Murmu on Tuesday asked a few questions to the Supreme Court regarding its decisions regarding fixing deadlines for President and Governors nod for Bills:

* How can the Supreme Court substitute the President /Governor’s powers under the Constitution with its own powers under Article 142?
* Are states misusing the “plenary power" of the Supreme Court against the Centre?
* How can a timeline be prescribed for the President and Governor?
* What are the constitutional options before a Governor when a Bill is presented to him under Article 200 of the Constitution?

The President mentioned Articles 200 and 201, applicable to Governors and the President

respectively, and stated that they “do not stipulate any time frame or procedure" to be followed by them while considering the grant or refusal of assent to a Bill passed by an Assembly.

SC Placed President On A Deadline

In April this year, the Supreme Court passed a judgement in response to a November 2023 petition filed by the Tamil Nadu government against the State’s Governor indefinitely withholding assent to 10 Bills passed by the state Assembly, some as early as 2020.

Delivering a verdict, the Supreme Court ruled that the President must decide on state Bills, reserved by Governors for Presidential assent, within three months. The Apex Court set aside Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi’s decision to withhold assent to 10 pending Bills and ruled that the President should also not take more than three months to deliver decision on Bills referred by Governors.