President Murmu withholds nod to 3 Bills passed by Kerala assembly that would have curtailed Governor’s powers

In a setback for ruling CPI(M) in Kerala, the President has withheld the assent for three Bills passed by the State Legislative Assembly, including one envisaged to divest the governor from the position of chancellor of universities in Kerala. But the President has cleared the Kerala Lokayukta Amendment Bill, 2022, which curtailed the powers of the anti-corruption watchdog, bringing relief for the government which gets power to either reject or accept the ombudsman’s report.

The Raj Bhavan, in an official communication, said, “Hon’ble President of India has withheld assent to the following Bills which Hon’ble Governor Shri Arif Mohammed Khan had referred to Rashtrapati Bhavan for consideration. The bills withheld are Kerala University Laws [Amendment No.2] [Divesting Governor from the position of Chancellor of Universities] Bill 2022, University Law Amendment Bill 2022 [Expansion of Search Committee for the Appointment of Vice chancellor] and the University Law Amendment Bill 2021 [Appellate Tribunal issue and other amendments to Technological University and others]. Of the seven bills which Governor Arif Mohammed Khan referred to the Rashtrapati Bhavan in November last year, assent has been accorded to only one Bill, namely, Kerala Lokayukta Amendment Bill 2022. Decision on other three Bills is awaited.”

In the wake of the recurring friction between the Governor and the Government, eight bills passed by the State Assembly in the last two years have been pending with Raj Bhavan. After Arif Mohammed Khan did not either give his consent to the bills or referred them to the President, the Government last November had moved the Supreme Court against the governor, highlighting the delay in clearing bills passed by the assembly. At the time, eight bills were pending with Khan.

The Supreme Court had asked the office of the Governor to go through its verdict in a similar case filed by the Punjab government, in which the top court held that Governors could not “thwart the normal course of lawmaking”.

Subsequently, Khan gave his assent to one of the eight bills pending with him. The bill he had cleared was the Kerala Public Health Bill. The rest of the seven bills were reserved for the presidential assent.

The three bills pertaining to higher education and university were meant to curtail the powers of the governor in the universities, and ostensibly meant to give an upper hand to the government in the appointment of VCs.