Punjab: Governor reserves three Bills for President Murmu’s consideration

Chandigarh (Punjab) [India]: Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Wednesday reserved three Bills passed by the state assembly in June this year for the consideration of President Droupadi Murmu. 

The governor has reserved the three Bills for the consideration of the President of India as per Article 200 of the Constitution, a Raj Bhavan spokesperson said. 

According to Article 200 of the Constitution, when a Bill has been passed by the legislative assembly of a state or, in the case of a state having a legislative council, has been passed by both Houses of the legislature of the state, it shall be presented to the governor and the governor shall declare either that he assents to the Bill or that he withholds assent therefrom or that he reserves the Bill for the consideration of the President. 

Among the three Bills, The Punjab Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023, concerns removing the Governor as the chancellor of universities in the state. 

It seeks to replace the governor with the chief minister as chancellor of 11 state-run universities. 

The AAP government brought the Bill following a standoff with the governor over the procedure to appoint vice-chancellors of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) and Punjab Agricultural University (PAU). 

The other two Bills are –The Sikh Gurudwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and The Punjab Police (Amendment) Bill, 2023. 

The Sikh Gurudwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2023 aims at providing free-to-air telecast of the Gurbani from Golden Temple in Amritsar by amending the British-era Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, and ensuring that it is not commercialised in any manner. 

The Punjab Police (Amendment) Bill, 2023, seeks to do away with the Supreme Court-mandated procedure in the selection of state police chiefs. 

Earlier on November 24, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann wrote a demi-official letter reminding the Governor about the Bills. “The Bills were under his active consideration,” the Governor responded. 

Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that governors cannot sit on state Bills. 

The bench of CJI D Y Chandrachud and JusticesJ B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said unbridled powers to “unelected head of state” to sit indefinitely over bills “virtually veto the functioning of the legislative domain by a duly elected legislature by simply declaring that assent is withheld without any further recourse”. 

“Such a course of action would be contrary to fundamental principles of a constitutional democracy based on a parliamentary pattern of governance,” said Justice Chandrachud, who authored the November 10 j judgment.