The Cabinet on Wednesday decided to petition the Supreme Court against the “inordinate delay” on the part of Governor Arif Mohammed Khan in giving gubernatorial assent to several laws passed by the State Assembly over the past one-and-a-half years.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Mr. Khan’s defiance of the people’s will harked back to the colonial days when provincial Governors had sweeping discretionary powers. Mr. Khan’s action was anti-Constitutional and against the spirit of parliamentary democracy.
The Cabinet’s decision was the latest development in the government’s protracted political and legal wrangles with the Governor.
He reminded the Opposition that the Congress had a storied history of resisting such unilateral and anti-democratic gubernatorial authority. The Congress had refused to form governments in five provinces in 1937 to wring a promise from the Viceroy that the colonial government at the Centre would restrict the whimsical and unchecked powers vested on provincial Governors.
Mr. Vijayan seemed to be obliquely hinting at the Congress petition to the Governor to withhold assent for the Lok Ayukta, public health and university laws amendment Bills.
“Surprisingly, the public health Bill is people-friendly and has no controversial provision that warrants a gubernatorial dissent,” Mr. Vijayan said.
He said Mr. Khan was inexplicably denying assent to several Bills passed by the Assembly. His denial of approval has stonewalled government functioning.
Mr. Vijayan saw a political ally in Telangana and Tamil Nadu governments which faced a similar predicament. He said the government had answered the queries raised by Mr. Khan. Ministers and top officials called on him several times to assuage his doubts. Nevertheless, Mr. Khan remained unmoved.
Leading jurist Fali S. Nariman has advised the government to move the Supreme Court. The Cabinet has hired the services of senior lawyer K.K. Venugopal to represent the State in the Supreme Court.
He said Mr. Khan had not approved the appointment of the State Human Rights Commission chairperson, heeding a baseless and spiteful objection petition filed by the Opposition.
