The Kerala government will add a political touch to its legal campaign against Governor Arif Mohammed Khan for “sleeping over” the Bills passed by the Kerala Legislature by asking one of the CPI(M) legislators to join the government in moving the Supreme Court.
The petition, along with a Special Leave Petition by the government against an earlier order of the Kerala High Court rejecting a writ petition asking the Governor to act on the Bills, will be filed in the Supreme Court when it resumes functioning after the Puja holidays on October 30 .
The writ petition, to be filed by a party MLA, will highlight the violations of his rights as a member of the 15th Legislative Assembly. The legislator will point out that the Governor had been “sleeping over” a few important Bills passed by the Assembly and thus stalling the democratic process and functions of the State government.
The legislator and the State government together will argue before the apex court that the inaction on the part of the Governor in exercising any of the three options prescribed in the Article 200 of the Constitution has led to an unprecedented Constitutional crisis in the State. The Governor could also have referred the pieces of legislation back to the Legislature seeking clarifications or could even ask the State legislature to reconsider them. However, the Governor has not chosen any of the options available to him, the MLA and the State government would argue.
No precedents
The State would also point out that the Governor has not acted on some legislations for which he had given his assent while they were promulgated as Ordinances when the House was not in session. The acts of the Governor, the petitions would argue, have no parallels or precedents in the constitutional history of the country. The inordinate inaction on the part of the Governor, while undermining the functioning of the legislature, has also affected the discharge of the duties of the State in several sectors of public life, including public health, cooperative sector and higher education, the petition will say.
