On Monday, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan rebutted the State Government’s accusation that he had precipitated a constitutional crisis by refusing to sign into law at least eight Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly.
Mr. Khan’s comment came hours before the Supreme Court was poised to hear Kerala’s plea that Mr. Khan had “defeated the rights of people, including their right to life” by withholding his assent to important Bills, including a crucial law that seeks to confront mounting post-pandemic public health concerns.
Mr. Khan told newspersons in Thiruvananthapuram that he had not created constitutional crisis as alleged by the government. “Making a statement or observation is not tantamount to inventing a crisis,” he said.
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Mr. Khan denied overstepping his constitutional limits as the head of State. “There is a long list of instances where the government has crossed the line. I do not want to comment on persons who believe in an ideology that sanctions violence and brute force to achieve their political ends”, he said.
Earlier, Mr. Khan had drawn criticism from the ruling front for stating that “liquor and lottery” were Kerala’s primary sources of revenue and “it was a shame”. Mr. Khan had also obliquely criticised the government for holding the week-long Keraleeyam festival when its treasury was purportedly bone dry.
The Governor had also attracted a sharp riposte from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for suggesting that the government had yet to reply to the clarifications he sought on specific laws and that a personal visit from Mr. Vijayan to Raj Bhavan to brief matters would be in order.
Mr. Vijayan replied that he had despatched the Ministers who piloted the Bills to the Raj Bhavan to brief the Governor and answer his queries. He also suggested Mr. Khan appeared to have a clear political agenda.
Mr. Khan’s recent comment was the latest salvo of tit-for-tat accusations in the government’s bitter dispute with the Raj Bhavan. They also marked a new nadir in the increasingly fraught government-governor relations.
The State Government had moved the Supreme Court after the Kerala High Court refused to set a deadline for the governor to sign Bills passed by the Assembly into law.
It argued in the Supreme Court that Mr. Khan’s “arbitrary show of lack of urgency” in signing the Bills into law violated the constitutional mandate that governors should take immediate action in legislative matters.
By moving the Supreme Court against the Governor, Kerala has found a common cause with other non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled States with similar grievances, including Punjab and neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
