Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday said that there cannot be a situation where the judiciary issues directives to the president.

The remark was made in an apparent reference to the Supreme Court’s April 8 judgement imposing a three-month deadline for the president to approve or reject bills referred by state governors.

“So we have judges who will legislate, who will perform executive functions, who will act as super Parliament, and absolutely have no accountability because the law of the land does not apply to them,” Dhankhar, who served as the West Bengal governor from 2019 to 2022, said at an event.

Claiming that the concerns were at the “very highest level”, the vice president said: “There is a directive to the president by a recent judgement. Where are we heading? What is happening in the country?”

The Supreme Court’s verdict on April 8 came on a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu government after Governor RN Ravi did not act on several bills for over three years before rejecting them and sending some to the president.

Most of the bills related to higher education, including measures to remove the governor as chancellor of state universities. Of the 10 re-enacted bills sent to the president in November 2023, one was approved, seven were rejected and two were pending.

The court held that Ravi’s decision to withhold assent to 10 bills, some of which were pending since January 2020, and refer them to the president after they were re-enacted by the Assembly was “illegal and erroneous”.

The court declared that the 10 bills would be deemed to have received the governor’s assent from the date they were passed a second time by the legislature. It also set aside any action taken by the president based on the governor’s reference.

In its 414-page judgement, the court also imposed a three-month deadline on the president to approve or reject such bills.

“In case of any delay beyond this period, appropriate reasons would have to be recorded and conveyed to the state concerned,” the court said.

The bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan added that the president should seek the court’s advice on bills that are reserved by governors because of alleged unconstitutionality. It also clarified that the president did not have “unbridled powers” to exercise “absolute veto” on any bill.

On Thursday, Dhankhar said that the president was in a “very elevated” position.

“The president takes oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution,” he said. “This oath is taken only by the president and her appointees, the governors.”

The vice president added that it was not a question of someone filing a review.

“We never bargained for democracy for this day,” he said. “The president being called upon to decide in a time-bound manner, and if not, it becomes law.”

Noting that one must be “extremely sensitive”, Dhankhar added: “We cannot have a situation where you direct the president of India, and on what basis?”

Dhankhar also claimed that Article 142 of the Constitution “has become a nuclear missile against democratic forces, available to the judiciary 24x7”. The Article permits the Supreme Court to pass any order necessary to ensure “complete justice” in any case pending before it.

Also read: Explained: How a landmark Supreme Court judgement has ended the governor’s ‘pocket veto’