Case of sending bills passed by Assembly to President; Attorney General to appear for Governor

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Attorney General R Venkataramani will appear for the Governor in the petitions filed by the state government in the Supreme Court questioning the Governor's action of sending the bills passed by the state assembly to the President without signing them. The Governor had a meeting with the Attorney General in Delhi the other day. Venkataramani has advised the Governor to submit a factual report in the court next week explaining the situation under which the bills were sent to the President.

Kerala's demand is that the Governor's action of sending the bills passed by the Assembly to the President and the President's action of withholding the bills without specifying the reason should be declared unconstitutional. Another demand put forward by the state is that a set of guidelines be issued for making decisions on bills.

The petitions were filed by Chief Secretary V Venu and Perambra MLA T. P. Ramakrishnan. Former Attorney General KK Venugopal will appear for Kerala. The Governor directed the Law Secretary to send a copy of Kerala's writ petition to the Raj Bhavan.

'Govt crossed its limit'
The Governor will inform the Supreme Court that the bills were sent to the President after it became clear that the state government intends to curtail the autonomy of the universities and that this will lead to excessive intervention by the Government.

The unilateral intervention by the government will destroy the confidence of the people in the higher education sector. The bill for a five-member committee for the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor will remove the relevance of the representatives of the UGC and the Chancellor in the search committee.

The bill to make a private individual Chancellor would cause financial liability. Chancellors will lose their autonomy.

Only two bills left before President
The Governor had sent seven bills to the President. Only the Lokayukta amendment bill was approved by the President. Four bills were rejected. Only the Varsity Appellate Tribunal Appointment Amendment Bill passed in 2021 and the bill passed in 2022 to remove the Governor from the post of Chancellor are left before the President.