Presidential reference case: Everything you need to know about the Supreme Court judgement on timelines for acting on bills, deemed assent and more

The Supreme Court on Thursday (20th December) struck down the timelines it had previously set for Governors and the President to act on Bills passed by state legislatures. The Constitution Bench held that prescribing rigid timelines or creating the idea of “deemed assent” amounts to overstepping judicial limits and interfering with the powers assigned to constitutional functionaries. A Bench led by Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, along with Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, PS Narasimha and Atul S Chandurkar, ruled that its earlier judgment from April, which required Governors and the President to take decisions within a fixed period, was “incorrect” and violated the Constitution’s separation of powers.  The Court said that Articles 200 and 201, which deal with the assent process for state Bills, deliberately use flexible languages like “as soon as possible”, the court cannot convert this into strict deadlines.