Kerala Governor clears ve pending Bills

Bills were signed after the State approached SC citing inaction by Governor; the Bills are Land Assignment Amendment Bill, Abkari Law Amendment Bill, Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Amendment Bill, Kerala Co-operative Societies (Amendment) B

Signing the Bills has nothing to do with the court. We received so many petitions against all these Bills. So, we had to send it to the government and seek their comments ARIF MOHAMMED KHAN

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has signed ve Bills passed by the Kerala Assembly, some of which had been under his consideration for over two years.

The Bills that the Governor signed are the Kerala Government Land Assignment Amendment Bill, Abkari Law Amendment Bill, Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Amendment Bill, Kerala

Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill and Dairy Cooperation Bill.

The Governor has signed the Bills amid an ongoing legal ght with the State government approaching the Supreme Court arguing that the Governor was behaving like an adversary by keeping the Bills pending for years.

Speaking to presspersons on Saturday, Mr. Khan said he had signed the Bills a few days ago.

“I signed the ve Bills a few days ago. You came to know about it today [on Saturday]

after the polling. This has nothing to do with the court. We had received so many petitions against all these Bills. So, we had to send it to the government and seek their comments. Later, other people also came with their petitions, including those who were in favour. Taking an overall view, it was decided to pass the Bill. All of it takes some time,” Mr. Khan told presspersons.

As per Article 200 of the Constitution of India, when a State legislature passes a Bill, the Governor can either give assent to the Bill or withhold assent or reserve the Bill for the consideration of the President. It does not specify a time limit for action on Bills submitted to the Governor.

The Kerala government had argued that the Governor subverted the Constitution and acted in a manifestly arbitrary manner by keeping the Bills passed by the State legislature for an inde nite period. It also sought to get a declaration from the top court that the Governor was bound to dispose of every Bill presented to him within a reasonable time.

The Supreme Court had observed in November last year that neither any reasons nor any justi cation was given by the Governor to keep the Bills pending for such an “inordinately long period”.

(With PTI inputs)