Kerala seeks to withdraw pleas in SC against governor withholding bills, Centre opposes

The Kerala government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it intends to withdraw its petitions against the governor’s delay in acting on bills passed by the Assembly in view of a recent judgement laying down a timeline for the Tamil Nadu governor to act on such bills, The Hindu reported.

A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a petition filed by Kerala in 2023 against the delay by Arif Mohammed Khan, the state’s governor at the time, in clearing bills. It was also hearing a second petition filed in 2024 against President Droupadi Murmu’s decision to withhold her assent to bills referred to her.

“Both the petitions are infructuous,” Bar and Bench quoted Advocate KK Venugopal, representing the Kerala government, telling the bench. “We will be withdrawing both of them.”

Noting that the court’s April 8 judgement in the matter pertaining to the Tamil Nadu governor also applied to Kerala, Venugopal added that the governor had referred the bills to the president.

However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Union government, opposed the withdrawal of the petitions.

“These are constitutional issues,” Bar and Bench quoted Mehta as saying. “It cannot be filed lightly and withdrawn lightly. We are working on the issues involved.”

Venugopal said that both the attorney general and solicitor general opposing a withdrawal was “strange”, Bar and...

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