Governor raj has no place in Constitution

Republic's founding document envisages.limited role for Raj Bhavan in governance.Courts have made this clear multiple times

- Kaleeswaram Raj

After Punjab and Telangana, two more state governments, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have now approached the Supreme Court (SC) against the governors in the respective states on a common cause. They are aggrieved by the inordinate delay on the part of the governors to act on the Bills. On Monday, while dealing with the Punjab case, the Bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said that the governors must act even before the matter comes to the SC. The Court called for "a bit of soulsearching from the governors and reminded them that they are not elected by the people. These remarks explicitly reflect the very scheme of the country's Constitution.

How long can a governor keep a Bill pending, without deciding on it? There is a constitutional silence in Article 200, as it does not prescribe a time limit. There is only a recommendation to fix a reasonable time limit, made by the National Commission to review the working of the Constitution placed before the Centre in 2002. Yet, the phrase "as soon as possible" occurring in the Article for returning the Bill for reconsideration by the assembly stands against any notion of delay in the matter. It implies that the governor's assent should also happen "as soon as possible" and even if he returns the Bill for the assembly's reconsideration, he must act promptly. Once there is a reiteration of the content of the Bill by the assembly, the governor is bound to give assent. The third option for the governor under the Article is to reserve the matter for consideration of the President if such a consideration is constitutionally warranted.