LDF, Congress criticise Kerala guv’s remarks on SC judgment
In the HT interview, published on Saturday, Arlekar said the top court should have allowed Parliament to decide on the issue or referred it to a larger constitutional bench
The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress on Saturday criticised Kerala governor Rajendra Arlekar’s remarks, made during an interview with HT, that the Supreme Court’s decision to mandate a timeline for governors to approve bills was a case of “judicial overreach”.
Newly elected CPI(M) general secretary MA Baby said the governor’s comments suggest that he does not accept the “spirit of the top court’s verdict”. (CHECK) “The Supreme Court’s ruling is applicable to all the top leaders of the country including the Prime Minister and the President. It upholds the essence of the Constitution,” he told reporters. “The Kerala governor should have been willing to accept it. It is not desirable at all that he has criticised the top court’s verdict this way,” said Baby.
In the HT interview, published on Saturday, Arlekar said the top court should have allowed Parliament to decide on the issue or referred it to a larger constitutional bench. His comments came days after the Supreme Court pulled up Tamil Nadu governor RN Ravi for attempting to thwart the will of a state legislature and laid down timelines to curb inaction by governors across the country.
“The Constitution has not put any time limit for the governor to give assent to the bill. But, if Supreme Court today says there has to be a time limit, be it one or three months, it becomes a constitutional amendment. If the constitutional amendment is being done by the Supreme Court, then why are the legislature and Parliament needed?” Arlekar told HT.
Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal said Arlekar’s remarks disregard the “tenets of democracy and justice system”.
“The governor upholds the importance and significance of Parliament. But then, how can he justify those who are trying from the other side to demolish the importance of state assemblies. We feel that the governor speaking challenging the Supreme Court verdict is a sign of their concern that their agenda would not be implemented. His statement disregards the tenets of democracy and justice system,” Venugopal said at a party event in Kozhikode.
Similarly, CPI state secretary Binoy Viswam said it was “regrettable” that Arlekar was trying to walk in the path of his predecessor Arif Mohammad Khan, who had a testy relationship with the LDF government.
“If experienced leaders like Arlekar read through the provisions 153 to 167 of part 6A of the Constitution, they can understand the powers and limits of the post of the Governor. The Supreme Court verdict that he is criticising was borne out of the same Constitutional provisions. We hope that he would set aside the glasses of a BJP leader and use instead the glasses of a Governor,” Viswam said in a statement.
