Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday wrote to eight of his counterparts, urging them to oppose the presidential reference made to the Supreme Court regarding time limits for governors and the president to act on bills passed by state legislatures.

The letter has been addressed to the chief ministers of Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Punjab and West Bengal – all of whom are from parties other than the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader stressed the need to develop a “coordinated legal strategy before the Court and present a united front to preserve and protect the basic structure of the Constitution”.

Stalin said that although the presidential reference does not mention any specific state, it is aimed at challenging the Supreme Court’s April 8 verdict in a case filed by the Tamil Nadu government.

The court’s ruling came in response to a petition by the Tamil Nadu government after Governor RN Ravi did not act on several bills passed by the legislature for over three years before rejecting them and sending some to the president.

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.

On May 14, President Droupadi Murmu, on the advice of the Union Government, invoked Article 143(1) of the Constitution to seek the Supreme Court’s opinion on its ruling, submitting 14 questions, asking whether the actions of governors and the president could be tried in court. She also asked whether such timelines could be imposed on them in the absence of any such provision in the law.

Article 143(1) allows the president to ask for the opinion and the advice of the Supreme Court on matters of legal and public importance. In light of the reference, the court will have to set up a constitution bench to provide answers.

In her reference submitted before the court, the president noted that Article 200 and Article 201 of the Constitution, which outline the process of assent to bills by governors and the president, do not prescribe deadlines or specific procedural requirements.

In his letter on Saturday, Stalin said the “historic judgement” passed on April 8 was crucial for all states “since it upholds the federal structure and distribution of powers between the states and the Union [government], thus effectively preventing the obstruction of legislations enacted by democratically elected State Legislatures”, the Hindustan Times reported.

The Tamil Nadu chief minister further wrote: “Obviously, the BJP is attempting to unsettle this judgement, which can be invoked as a precedent by other States when faced with an obstinate Governor”.

He highlighted that the president’s advisory jurisdiction is not meant to be used when the matter has already been conclusively decided by the Court. “Yet, the BJP Government has pressed ahead with seeking a reference, which points to their sinister intent,” he added.

Also read: