Supreme Court Issues Notice to West Bengal Governor and Union over Bills Dispute

The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to both the Secretary to the Governor of West Bengal and the Union through the Ministry of Home Affairs in response to the State Government's challenge against the Governor’s refusal to assent to eight bills related to University Laws. The bench, led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and including Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, agreed to review the matter and allowed the petitioner to add the Union as a respondent.

Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta, representing West Bengal, informed the court that after the State filed a notice of mentioning the issue, the Governor’s office indicated that some bills might be reserved for the President’s consideration. However, Gupta noted, “After our notice of mentioning, the Governor’s office has sent a letter that we have reserved some of the bills for the consideration of assent but there is no official correspondence.”

In the writ petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, the State of West Bengal contends that the Governor's failure to provide reasons for withholding assent violates Article 200. Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, also representing the State, criticized this pattern, referencing a similar situation in Tamil Nadu. “This is now becoming a practice; in the Tamil Nadu matter, I filed a petition, and the moment the matter was listed, two bills were cleared,” said Singhvi.

Senior Advocate KK Venugopal, appearing in a related case for the State of Kerala, condemned the practice of referring bills to the President as a method of avoiding cooperation and said, “Referring to the President seems an easy way out, where they don’t want to cooperate... very unfortunate state of affairs.”

The State of West Bengal's petition argues that the Governor’s inaction undermines democratic governance and impedes the implementation of welfare measures. The bills in question were sent for assent under both Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and his successor, Governor CV Ananda Bose. The petition also cites previous Supreme Court rulings that mandate Governors to act promptly on bills and notes past criticisms of Governors in Tamil Nadu and Kerala for similar delays.​