- By Shubham Bajpai
- Thu, 20 Nov 2025 11:14 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to prescribe a timeline for the President and the Governors to act on legislation while pronouncing the opinion on the presidential reference. The top court said that doing so would amount to overstepping judicial boundaries.
It will be "trampling upon the separation of powers", the apex court added. However, the court also observed that they can not sit on the bill indefinitely.
The court ruled that delays cannot be indefinite, but the Governor and President are the constitutional authorities and cannot be bound by rigid timelines.
"We don't think governors have unfettered power to sit over bills passed by state assemblies," the bench said. The opinion of the Constitutional bench on the presidential reference was unanimous. A five-judge Constitution bench also ruled that governors cannot sit over bills beyond the powers granted to them under Article 200.
The 5-judge Constitutional Bench, headed by CJI BR Gavai, observed, "In a democratic country like ours, fixing timelines for Governors is against the elasticity provided by the Constitution".
"In the absence of constitutionally prescribed time limits, and the manner of exercise of power by the governor, it would not be appropriate for this court to judicially prescribe timelines for the exercise of powers under Article 200," the bench said.
Among other judges on the bench were Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, P S Narasimha, and AS Chandurkar. The bench heard the matter over 10 days, after which the opinion was reserved on September 11.
A Constitutional bench led by CJI BR Gavai issued its opinion while answering 13 questions referred to it by the President Draupadi Murmu under Article 143 of the Constitution, pertinently, whether timelines can be fixed for the Governor and the President to grant assent to State Bills.
(With PTI Inputs)