Kerala Pending Bills Row: Pinarayi Vijayan-led govt moves Supreme Court against Guv Arif Khan

The Kerala government has moved the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan to clear bills passed by state legislature in a timely manner. The writ petition has been filed in the Supreme Court over the long stand-off between the pending bills.

Listing the eight pending bills, the Kerala government questioned the conduct of the Governor saying that it 'threatens to defeat and subvert the very fundamentals and basic foundations of our Constitution, including the rule of law and democratic good governance, apart from defeating the rights of the people of the State to the welfare measures sought to be implemented through the Bills.'

The plea reads: 'Not only should pending bills be disposed of within a reasonable time, but further that these Bills have to be dealt with urgently and expeditiously without any avoidable delay.'

Kerala is not the first state to move the top court against the governor on the pending bills issue. Earlier in October, the Punjab government moved the court seeking clearance of seven bills and then Tamil Nadu for assent to bills related to the premature release of prisoners.