Supreme Court May Redirect Kerala’s Challenge Against Governor to Justice Pardiwala’s Bench
Last Updated on April 1, 2025 by Amit Patra
KK Venugopal, who represents the oldest speech, appealed to Chief Justice of India Sadanjiv Khanna, on March 25, to transfer Kerala’s petitions against its Governor to Justice JB Pardiwala’s bench, which has already reserved the judgment on similar issues raised by Tamil Nadu.
Kerala Venugopal claimed under the aegis of Chief Justice of India, the urgency of the matter was on account of two bills recently rejected after a lengthy delay. “The Governor sends it to the President; the President keeps it for one year and 3 months; yesterday we received the denial regarding two bills… this is a very very urgent matter” before the courts, Venugopal emphasized.
CJI Khanna asked for a mention slip and made available his readiness to look at the possibility of transferring the matter. “I’ll see; I will maybe mark it to some other bench… I’ll mark it to some other bench given the timelines,” remarked Justice Khanna.
Venugopal pleaded for the case to be sent to Justice Pardiwala’s bench, which he has assigned to hear an issue in which Tamil Nadu has brought against its Governor over denying assent to 12 bills. The Senior Advocate referred to the issues having constitutional similarities between the two cases.
This Kerala litigation is a long way back, starting from November 2023 when a bench of the Supreme Court, which then included CJI DY Chandrachud, issued notice and thereafter allegedly censured then-Governor Arif Mohammed Khan for keeping bills lying for two years. The firmer stand happened when some of the bills went to the President, making Kerala file another petition in the year 2024 against the reference and the refusal of the President to give assent to them.
This case will be yet one more page to the book of ongoing constitutional tension pertaining between state governments and Governors as far as the law making process and executive powers are concerned under India’s federal structure.
