Raising concern over the ongoing tumultuous situation in Nepal, the Supreme Court on Wednesday emphasised that it is proud of the Indian Constitution.
“We are proud of our Constitution. If you look at what’s happening in our neighbouring States. What happened in Nepal yesterday…”, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) B.R. Gavai remarked, suggesting the nation’s constitution is so formidable that it has continued to keep the democracy intact.
The oral remark came on the 9th day of the hearing in the Presidential reference filed by the President of India, Draupadi Murmu, which had sought the top court’s opinion over various constitutional questions, pertinently, whether courts can impose timelines on the Governor and the President to grant assent on State bills.
During the hearing, the Solicitor General of India (SGI) representing the Union government submitted before a constitutional bench of the top court that out of the seventeen thousand bills that have been assented to by the Governors of various states since 1970, only twenty have been withheld by the Governor or the President.
“More than 90% Bills are passed within one month. Second column is the bills that are passed within three months, and the third is the bills that are passed within six months”, the SG submitted.
The SGI stated that withholding a bill is an option, and not a power of the Governor. “Only the ones which are “atrociously unconstitutional” are withheld, the SGI added.
The SGI sought the Court to take a look at empirical data in this regard. However, demurring on the SG’s request, the top court stated that it would be unfair for it to consider data presented by one side after it had disallowed the other side to present data-based submissions.
“If we have not permitted them to give any data, we can’t let you give any data. That’s not fair”, the CJI said.
SGI Mehta insisted that the Court consider the data for a minute at least. “90% of Bills have been passed since 1975, and only 20 have been withheld”, the SGI asserted.
However, the top court remained firm in its stance not to consider data-based submissions and was of the view that it is irrelevant in this regard, as the Court had not allowed the other sides to make any such submissions.
At this juncture, Justice Vikram Nath, who is part of the five-judge constitutional bench, remarked, “The nation has been continuing to function for the last 75 years with the Constitution and the democracy, irrespective of whether 90%of Bills have been withheld or 50% bills have been withheld to…”, suggesting that submissions based on percentage or data are irrelevant.
Adding to Justice Nath’s remark, the CJI Gavai said that we are proud of our Constitution, considering how India’s neighbours have been plagued by political turmoil in recent years, specifically pointing to what happened in Nepal in the last couple of days.
“And in Bangladesh…”, added Justice P.S. Narasimha.
The Court will continue to hear tomorrow the Presidential reference on the powers of the Governor and the President over assent to bills. (ANI)
