Article 142: A Bhasmasur That Needs To be Reined in
It is one thing to ask Governors in opposition-ruled states to not play politics and sit on bills passed by legislatures, quite another to mess around with constitutional provisions and convert the judiciary into the final arbiter on all matters. The recent verdict of a two-judge bench comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, which heard petitions of the Tamil Nadu government against Governor RN Ravi’s tendency to delay sanctions on bills passed by the state legislature, serves the purpose sending a message that Governors cannot substitute their wisdom for that of elected legislators. Equally, one cannot but point out that the courts have no business telling other constitutional functionaries what they must or must not do, and in what timeframe, when the constitution itself does not prescribe any such thing. If there is a sense that Governors are over-reaching, the remedy for it lies in the political sphere and not the courts. Governments that think they are being single...